New Lands’ End CEO Taking an Omnichannel Approach
Jerome Griffith took over as Lands’ End CEO in March, and for the first time in that position he addressed the company at its shareholders meeting last week. He told those in attendance he is “extremely excited” about Lands’ End’s future. “The elements of success are here," Griffith said.
“The company [does] over $1 billion in e-commerce [a year],” said Griffith. “Many, many retailers out there would love to have a company like that. I’m pretty excited and bullish about what direction we can take the company in. But it’s not going to go very far away from what it’s known for: great quality, very good value and service-oriented.”
In a Q&A with the La Crosse Tribune, Griffith said that while he sees problems within the company, such as it is living in the 1990s still and has failed in ways to adapt to today’s retail world, he believes those issues are fixable.
Total Retail’s Take: Griffith is really pushing Lands’ End to become an omnichannel retailer — something that's absolutely necessary today. He said he wants to enable one-click checkout, have a more responsive mobile site and make product returns easier for customers.
“We’ve got to run and catch up, and then move forward,” said Griffith.
Former CEO Federica Marchionni, who left the company in September, tried to turn Lands’ End into a more fashion-forward and youthful brand. Griffith is taking similar steps, albeit with a different approach, so we'll see if it helps the struggling retailer.
