What does loyalty mean in retail?

As other retailers refresh their customer incentives, apparel brand Kith on Thursday announced it launched the Kith Loyalty program.

The three-tiered loyalty program offers members incentives such as members-only custom items, early access to select products, VIP invitations to the company’s events, line priority and in-store returns at its flagship stores, according to a press release emailed to Retail Dive.

In celebration of the launch, the brand on Friday released its Molecule Exclusives collection for loyalty members, including apparel, accessories and limited-edition footwear.

To encourage participation, Kith is allowing consumers to earn loyalty points by entering contests, adding their shopping preferences to its mobile shopping app, checking into Kith events and visiting the brand’s physical stores. 

The company partnered with Adidas to create limited-edition footwear for loyalty members. In addition to Adidas, the company has collaborated with and highlighted other shoe brands in the past year or so, including Asics, Hoka and Nike’s Air Jordan.

Meanwhile, as Kith builds its multi-tiered loyalty program, other brands and retailers have been investing in their own loyalty programs. Last August, Under Armour debuted its first loyalty program, allowing members to access special events, new merchandise and exclusive videos with Under Armour athletes and fitness experts. The following month, children’s apparel brand Hanna Andersson introduced its loyalty program, offering members discounts, rewards points for their purchases, exclusive access to new product launches, free shipping and sales. 

As established and emerging brands build their loyalty programs, others are looking for ways to enhance their existing membership programs. Last February, Victoria’s Secret piloted its new “The VS & Pink Collective” program offering rewards, member exclusives, digital community features and added benefits for cardholders.

NEW YORK — Coming off a holiday undermined by inflation, with uncertainty around the economy ongoing and consumer behavior still shifting, there were few signs of strength from the retail industry evident during the National Retail Federation’s annual conference this week. December retail sales, at the peak of the holiday season, were reported by the government the day after the Big Show ended, and missed the industry group’s expectations. But one bright spot emerged: resale is presenting an opportunity that is increasingly hard to ignore.

Buying used goods has long been favored by consumers looking for value, and that has become especially important with household budgets squeezed by inflation, several conference speakers said. And many, particularly younger consumers, appreciate what is widely seen as a more sustainable form of consumption, others noted.

“Obviously it's a hot topic. You don't need to look any further than that NRF agenda that you're all holding ... to see there's a number of sessions on this throughout the week,” said Brian Ehrig, a partner at consultancy Kearney who moderated a Tuesday panel on executing resale. “I think it's for two reasons. One, resale is good for the planet. And also hopefully, it's going to be good for business as well.”

There isn’t a consensus around how good, according to Ehrig. “But everybody agrees that it's going to be large,” he said, noting that Morningstar estimates that the market could hit $300 billion by 2031. “And it's growing at three times the rate of the primary market. And if you're in retail today, probably everybody would be very happy to get something that's growing very fast, growing double digits.”

Globally, the secondhand market is expected to have grown by 24% in 2022, according to a ThredUp survey of 3,500 U.S. adult consumers and 50 fashion retailers conducted by GlobalData last year. That report estimates that the U.S. secondhand market will more than double by 2026, reaching $82 billion. The luxury secondhand market is growing 11 times faster than traditional retail, according to Emily Erkel, who led a Monday panel on higher-end resale. Erkel is co-founder of luxury resale platform LePrix, which works with retailers to source and sell high-end pre-owned goods. 

“We're going to talk about the opportunity here,” said Lee Peterson, executive vice president of thought leadership and marketing at WD Partners, during a Tuesday presentation on resale in brick and mortar. “So right now — and I've heard this a few times this week, there's been other resale presentations — that we’re at around $30-some billion [dollars] a year now in used merchandise across the United States.”

J. Crew on Tuesday announced a two-pronged approach to selling pre-owned apparel. The preppy brand, like its sibling Madewell and a host of others, is working with ThredUp to sell used items online. Liz Hershfield, who leads sustainability at J. Crew Group as well as sourcing at Madewell, said during Ehrig’s panel that J. Crew has also curated an assortment of vintage items to sell in select stores.

Adding secondhand items to a retailer’s offer doesn’t just open a new revenue opportunity, according to speakers at NRF. Several said it also helps drive traffic to stores and e-commerce sites, as well as sales of new items, and that’s true across categories and price points. Molly Taylor, chief merchant for luxury off-price retailer Saks Off 5th, said that is one reason that brands have increasingly embraced such sales.

“Customers are really looking for that access to luxury brands,” she said during the panel led by Erkel. “I think resale is kind of a gateway to luxury.”

Ikea has also found that people coming in to buy or sell used items purchase new ones, according to Seana Strawn, who leads retail design and home furnishing identity at Ikea U.S., speaking alongside Peterson on Tuesday.

“We actually have seen people lined up outside our resale area to be able to be that first person to be able to shop the product,” she said. “And also the fact is, is that they don't just buy resale, they stay in the store and they buy our non-resale product as well. So it's absolutely a traffic driver, and it's absolutely an increase to basket.”

That doesn’t mean that adding resale is simple. Sourcing is more complicated than in traditional retail, Peterson noted. And there are different selling approaches, including buying inventory, peer-to-peer sales and consignment. M.M.LaFleur chose to work with a third party to facilitate its pre-owned sales, using a peer-to-peer model where customers buy and sell to each other, founder and CEO Sarah LaFleur told an NRF audience on Tuesday. 

With no MSRP rules for guidance and demand fluctuations that sometimes mean items could fetch prices higher than their original tags, pricing is also tricky. Authenticity and transparency around condition, especially in luxury, are key. Still, any retailer that fails to contemplate resale is leaving money on the table, given the enthusiasm for secondhand goods, according to those speaking at NRF.

Some 80% of Saks Off 5th customers want the retailer to offer used items, Taylor said. Just over 71% of consumers already buy, sell or trade items at least monthly, with 38% doing so at least weekly, according to Peterson. 

“Price is a factor, yeah,” he said. “But the treasure hunt is also a factor.”

Despite the complexities, many retailers have a decided advantage over dominant players like Goodwill and Salvation Army, whose stores tend to be poorly merchandised, with crowded, messy racks of goods and inadequate signage, according to Peterson. And at least for now, logistics mean that brick-and-mortar locations are the only profitable way to sell used goods.

“[If you’re not doing resale], you’re definitely behind the customer from what we can tell. We just did this research a few months ago,” Peterson said. “We all really need to start to think about how we're going to get this done. Fail fast, and get it going.”

Staples has reimagined its loyalty program, introducing a new Easy Rewards program, the office supply retailer announced Thursday. The points-based system allows shoppers to earn points and cash them in for qualifying purchases.

Shoppers can earn reward points for purchasing qualifying items, recycling used items and using other Staples services. Easy Rewards also gives shoppers exclusive access to savings events and members-only offers, according to a company press release.

Customers will accumulate two times the points when they buy from their three most frequently purchased categories. They can also track their rewards points online or via the store’s mobile app, the company said.

Staples developed its new loyalty rewards program in response to customer feedback. 

“Staples has a long history of looking for ways to make our customers’ lives easier. So, when they asked us for a different kind of loyalty program, we listened,” Ory Adler, vice president of digital and loyalty at Staples, said in a statement. “Easy Rewards is the ultimate personalized shopping experience, delivering tremendous savings and value to every customer because it’s built around their unique preferences.”

To celebrate the new program, the retailer is offering a series of leap day deals. On Feb. 29, customers can earn 29 times points on products such as laptops, printers, luggage and Apple products if they spend $29 or more. The retailer is also providing 29,000 free passport photos at its stores across the country.

Staples isn’t the only retailer paying closer attention to customer loyalty. Over the past year or so, other major brands and retailers, including Victoria’s Secret, Under Armour, Kith and Barnes & Noble, have debuted or revamped their customer loyalty incentives. Increasingly, retailers are adding unique perks for loyalty members like exclusive merchandise, early access to product drops or tiered benefit structures.

Staples has also bolstered other customer support and returns offerings to ease the shopper experience. Last July, the company introduced three paid computer tech support plans, providing customers with support for issues ranging from laptop crashes and device damage to identity theft and viruses. That same month, the company expanded its acceptance of Amazon returns to all of its physical locations.

Dive Brief:

• Online retail sales, excluding travel, surpassed $1 trillion last year “for the first time in history,” according to Comscore’s State of Digital Commerce report. While online non-travel sales totaled $1.09 trillion last year, e-commerce sales in Q4 reached its “highest quarter ever” at $332.2 billion.
• The top grossing digital commerce categories in 2022 were food, pet and baby goods ($219 billion), followed by apparel and accessories ($175 billion) and computers and peripherals ($117 billion), the report found. While apparel and accessories spending rose 37% year over year, video games and accessories online purchases rose by nearly a third (31%) and home and garden online sales rose by a quarter. 
• Mobile sales increased by more than a quarter (26%) in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to the previous year. Mobile sales now comprise 38% of overall digital commerce sales, the report said.

Dive Insight:

After the coronavirus pandemic pushed consumers to shop more online, e-commerce sales have continued to grow in recent years. A March 2021 Adobe report found that the shoppers spent a total of $844 billion since March 2020. It also predicted that e-commerce spending would reach $1 trillion last year. 

Comscore’s findings exceeded a prediction from FTI Consulting. Last July, FTI Consulting forecast that e-commerce retail sales would reach $1.07 trillion last year, just shy of Comscore’s $1.09 trillion calculation. The firm previously projected that online retail sales wouldn’t attain that milestone until 2025. 

E-commerce spending reached record highs during the 2022 holiday season. According to an Adobe report, consumers spent $211.7 billion online from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, up 3.5% year over year. Among the top product categories during the holidays were toy sales, video games, apparel and accessories. 

Comscore’s report also showed some signs that shoppers were hunting for deals as inflation shrank their buying power. While the retail keyword “bargain” spiked 97% between 2021 and 2022, the terms “bulk” and “budget” also increased 32% and 30%, respectively. 

Though inflation appears to be slowing down, retailers feel the pinch as shoppers seek markdowns to reduce spending. A recent Deloitte survey of 50 retail executives found that two-thirds of respondents anticipate pricing to be more of a deciding factor to consumers than retailer loyalty. Overall, Deloitte said that reduced spending power will impact retail sales this year. 

Inflation has been the story of the summer for any retailer selling discretionary goods, as higher prices on essentials have led to swift, stark shifts in shopping behavior. But retail sales in July — up nearly 10% since 2021 and a little better than flat since June, according to numbers from the Commerce Department — indicate that consumer spending has held up despite record inflation.

It helped that gas prices in July began edging down, leaving more cash in people’s wallets. Plus the numbers look better than they really are because the federal government doesn’t adjust them for inflation. But they do include the first real gain in volume — actual goods sold — in three months, according to research from Wells Fargo economists.

“Overall, demand is not falling off a cliff and our view that retail is landing softly remains,” GlobalData Managing Director Neil Saunders said in emailed comments.

Natalie Kotlyar, national leader of the retail and consumer products practice at consultancy BDO, said she is not surprised to see retail holding steady in recent months. But there are also signs that retailers will be dealing with a changed consumer for the foreseeable future, she and others say.

”There is an interesting phenomenon going on right now with inflation rates increasing and customers continuing to spend on discretionary goods,” Kotlyar said in emailed comments. “Summer vacations are certainly a driver of this, as are the relatively strong performances of off-price retailers. Consumers are finding a way to get the products they want and need for a price they are comfortable paying. This tells me that while consumers are willing to spend, they’re savvy – they are looking for savings when and where they can.”

That includes waiting for markdowns and switching brands, according to researchers at rewards marketing platform Blackhawk Network, who found that 46% of consumers they surveyed are buying more things on sale, and 22% say they’re buying less from their favorite brands.

Shoppers were careful in July, foregoing purchases, especially bigger-ticket items, per GlobalData research. And they went online, where they could easily find the best deals and conserve gas by staying home. While e-commerce growth had been ebbing this year as shoppers returned to stores, in July online sales rose nearly 30% from a year ago.

The question for retailers as the holidays loom is whether consumers’ fragile strength can hold. Wells Fargo economists Tim Quinlan and Shannon Seery said in a research note that their staying power should last into Labor Day, but that once kids return to school and bills come due, households will begin to tighten their belts.

“Even as inflation is showing signs of moderating, it will do so only slowly,” they said.

If so, consumer budgets will shrink again as winter approaches and energy bills rise, according to GlobalData’s Saunders. The traditional autumn lift in apparel sales may be elusive in 2022, in part because winter and fall clothing tends to be more expensive than summer garb, he said.

Consumer retrenchment has been happening at the same time that retailers’ own expenses are up, pressuring margins and profits, Saunders also warned. That has already led to dramatic inventory adjustments and even layoffs in the industry.

“Equally, with lower volumes coming through, the spoils are being spread more thinly which is why there is now quite a variance in sales performance between various retailers,” he said. “Unfortunately, we see both these trends continuing to be in play until at least the year end.”

The consumer predicament that has scrambled demand and disrupted loyalty will be testing retailers as they begin to merchandise their stores for their all-important back-to-school and holiday seasons.

“The volatile economy could put a halt to consumer spending ahead of these critical times for retailers,” BDO’s Kotlyar said. “Alternatively, retailers may find that sweet spot with their customers where they’re aligned with product availability and cost, and then the sales will come and the margins will follow.”

NEW YORK — Target wants the retail industry to know it’s brought its “Targét" touch to grocery and omnichannel. 

Ease, joy and affordability are the pillars of the retailer’s framework for differentiating itself to customers, Chief Growth Officer Christina Hennington and Chief Food and Beverage Officer Rick Gomez said during the National Retail Federation’s conference in New York earlier this week.

Like other mass retailers, Target has benefited from the initial pandemic years prompting one-stop shopping, as well as recent months-long high inflation placing a renewed focus on value — leading to mass retailers attracting more grocery shoppers and posing bigger competition to traditional supermarkets. 

While Target a few years ago lagged other large national retailers in areas such as grocery assortment and having a loyalty program, the Minneapolis-based retailer has not only worked to catch up, but now, according to Gomez, sees its innovation in food and beverage and omnichannel as providing competitive advantages over traditional grocers and other mass retailers. 

That innovation ties into Target positioning itself at the intersection of affordability, one-stop shopping and experiential retail, both in-store and online, with “affordable joy,” Gomez noted. 

“At Target, we think about building a shopping experience that's differentiated on multiple dimensions. But it's really about creating an emotional connection to that consumer,” Hennington said in a one-on-one session with Kantar with a packed audience on the last day of the conference. 

Here’s what Hennington and Gomez, who are also both executive vice presidents for the retailer, shared in separate NRF sessions Tuesday about how Target is innovating with grocery and omnichannel.  

Taking a ‘holistic’ approach to value

With the challenging economic environment and the looming threat of recession, Gomez said Target is tapping into different components of value to appeal to consumers. 

“Value is top of mind, but we have to think about value more holistically than just price,” Gomez said, noting consumers also want quality, ease and convenience. 

Gomez highlighted Target’s private brands as a prime example: Good & Gather, which launched in 2019 and is now a $3 billion brand, offers high-quality, better-for-you options at an affordable price while Favorite Day, which debuted in 2021 and is growing by double digits, focuses on indulgence.

“We call them ‘own brands’ and not ‘private label’ because we put as much care and attention into the research, the design, the packaging, the quality as any great brand,” Hennington said.

To provide value through ease, Gomez spotlighted Target’s dinner solution meal bags, which cost around $15 and include the ingredients needed to make family-favorite recipes: “It’s been a huge success.”

Using assortment as a differentiator

Target’s multi-category offerings provide one-stop shopping that people can’t get at most grocery stores, Gomez said: “We’re a $20 billion grocery business. It's a big business for us — bigger than a lot of regional grocers — but it's only 20% of our mix.”

Hennington said Target is looking to provide inspiration with its assortment. 

Drilling further into assortment advantages, Target has a three-pronged approach to its food and beverage business that sets it apart from conventional grocers: own brands; national partners who can offer exclusive, limited-time items; and small, emerging brands often from BIPOC founders and women, Gomez said.

Target is growing its private brands portfolio. “Our own brand portfolio is actually growing 2X [compared to] national brands, and I think that's our guests saying, ‘We are looking for value during these tough times,’” Gomez said.

The retailer introduced a new private label line of pre-mixed cocktails called Casa Cantina last year and in 2021 added a plant-based line under its Good & Gather brand. Target’s Favorite Day is one of the top fastest-growing private label brands by household penetration in the second quarter of 2022, according to findings from Numerator. 

Target’s over $30 billion worth of own brands is a large part of its “secret sauce,” Hennington said.

Gomez noted that Target supports emerging brands to help them scale their business at Target “and beyond.” For example, the retailer worked with the McBride Sisters wine brand to launch varietals: “They've gone on to other retailers and they're selling in other places, but we're really proud that we were able to partner with them in the beginning,” Gomez said, adding that the brand’s Black Girl Magic wine has been “hugely successful” with Target shoppers. 

Hennington also pointed to the commitment Target made in 2021 to invest more than $2 billion in Black-owned businesses by 2025, which the retailer said in May it’s on track to achieve.

While Target, like many other food retailers, has had to stay focused on supply chain availability for the last couple of years, increased innovation in food and beverage that provides “newness” is an area Gomez is especially excited about. Health and wellness, in particular, is one area where Target customers are leading edge and interested in trying new things, Gomez said, pointing to its vegan, plant-based line launched with Tabitha Brown at the start of this year. 

“[It’s] very approachable, very affordable and it has done incredibly well,” Gomez said about the exclusive line.

Experimenting with store formats

Target has completed over 1,000 remodels to date and is rolling out different store formats to meet different markets, Gomez said.   

In March 2021, the retailer promised to invest $4 billion annually in remodels, new stores and online fulfillment enhancements. Last year alone, Target pledged $5 billion to scale its operations in 2022 with work on its digital, fulfillment and distribution capabilities.

For example, the retailer has dozens of small-format locations, which it heavily leaned into in recent years, in Manhattan and paired with college campuses, Gomez said. 

Last spring, Target unveiled its first net zero energy store, which is located in Vista, California, around the same time Amazon announced its pursuit of a net zero carbon certification for a new Amazon Fresh in Seattle.

Now, Target is seeing opportunities to also open larger stores, such as the nearly 150,000-square-foot location it opened in the fall in Katy, Texas. Leveraging different store formats is all about meeting the needs of individual markets, Gomez said.

“We want to show up in a way that's appropriate for that community” regardless of store size, Gomez said.

Boosting omnichannel services

Target has long had a strong reputation for its in-store shopping experience, but the retailer is positioning itself as an omnichannel retailer that blends in-store and digital, Gomez said, noting customers are intertwining different shopping methods. 

“They may start digital and end up in stores or start in stores and end up in digital. They may be in stores and they're on their app at the same time,” Gomez said. “So we need to build both and we need to have the best of both. ... One of the things that we're doing is we recognize that the store experience is just as important as digital.”

The pandemic prompted Target to transform its business overnight, Gomez said, by expanding same-day services and allowing shoppers to get dry and frozen grocery, alcohol, fresh produce and more in a four-minute drive-up pickup. Target has also brought its widely popular in-store Starbucks cafes into its curbside pickup service and has also expanded its pickup and same-day delivery options for alcohol. 

After testing Starbucks drive-up orders in about a dozen stores, Target has now rolled the option out to approximately 250 locations.

“We’re not advertising [the Starbucks drive-up option]. We’re not marketing it. Quite frankly, we don’t need to because the social media alone is driving a ton of trial,” Gomez said. “And our guests, they love it.”

It’s a prime example of how Target is turning to innovation to bring “a little bit of happiness to people’s everyday moments,” Gomez noted. 

Creating a customer-focused loyalty program

Collecting data is important but Target learned the hard way it needed to build a customer-first loyalty program in order to successfully glean shopper insights.

When Target first tried to launch a loyalty program about four years ago, its initial offering was “transactional” by rewarding spending with points, said Gomez, who admitted that Target was lagging other major mass players in offering loyalty programs. 

After roughly a year and not getting the desired results, Target pulled the program: “We lost sight of what we do, what we believe in, which is: data is in service of our relationship,” Gomez said.  

In its next attempt to create what is now Target Circle, the retailer made personalization the centerpiece, allowing members to unlock offerings that are tailored and relevant to them and also letting them vote for which local charities in their communities they want Target to make donations to. With more than 120 million members currently, the program is one of the largest and fastest-growing loyalty programs in the U.S., the Target executives noted. 

Hennington said that Target is connecting its loyalty program data with its retail media network, Roundel, to further boost its customer experience and also deepen its vendor relationships.

“You have to put the consumer at the center ... The point of innovation is to make sure that you are either addressing their pain point or providing the delight that your guest is looking for. I think innovation comes big and small. It's in products and services. And we focus a lot of innovation on ease, providing the joy [and] providing affordability,” Gomez said. 

Dive Brief:

• Adding another digital service, David’s Bridal has introduced Pearl by David’s, a new wedding planning platform that includes a vendor marketplace for couples, the company announced Thursday. 
• Through the platform, customers can view wedding advice content, access various wedding vendors, take advantage of the bridal retailer’s loyalty rewards program and get discounts on certain vendors. Couples can also manage their registry, build a wedding website, book appointments at David’s Bridal and create a wedding checklist.
• Vendors can join the platform for free, create their own web pages on the site and showcase their offerings, according to the announcement. Alternatively, vendors can pay $49 per month to access trunk shows and other networking events, or $119 per month for a premium membership.

Dive Insight:

David’s Bridal has been working to improve its digital services for the past few years and step further into the wedding planning process. That has included acquiring wedding site Rustic Wedding Chic in 2020 and rolling out its own wedding planning tools. Through its new platform, David’s Bridal is connecting couples with local vendors like Bach to Basic, Nash Taps and Ravel Events.

“Pearl was developed at the request of our very own brides,” Jim Marcum, CEO of David’s Bridal, said in a statement. “Brides told us they wanted easier planning tools, a more seamless experience from planning to buying the dress, and more ways to earn Diamond points. Pearl also addresses pain points and gaps in the market couples experience when planning their wedding.”   

The platform is an extension of a series of digital efforts David’s Bridal has invested in over the years. In April 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic upended the wedding industry, the company debuted virtual styling appointments. Two months later, the retailer introduced appointments via Zoom to help bridal parties plan remotely and in the fall, the company teamed up with Vertebrae to upgrade product pages with 3D and augmented reality visualizations of its best-selling dresses. 

As the coronavirus pandemic continued to increase demand for digital services, David’s Bridal continued its tech push. In May 2021, the company launched a 24-hour YouTube Live channel showcasing content from couples, vendors and photographers. Later that year, the retailer introduced the David’s Bridal Planning App, where customers could access various wedding planning tools. Last July, the retailer worked with ad agency January Digital to create and post shoppable content on TikTok.

David’s Bridal has also worked to vary its product assortment, both through launching new product lines and through acquisitions. The retailer bought the assets of Anomalie, a custom wedding dress company, for an undisclosed sum last year. As part of the acquisition, Anomalie’s co-founder and CEO, Leslie Voorhees Means, joined David’s Bridal to manage “new strategic initiatives.”

Dive Brief:

• Alongside other retailers launching mobile apps, Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen have introduced shopping apps for iOS, the retailers announced Wednesday. 
• With the apps, shoppers can create registries, browse products across age groups, view and purchase items from 3D rooms, save their favorite products and make purchases using Apple Pay, according to the announcement. 
• Shoppers can also schedule appointments to meet with its designers in-store, at home or online.

Dive Insight:

Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen have joined other home goods retailers that have released mobile apps.

“The development of our mobile shopping apps was a coordinated effort focused on delivering a seamless, convenient customer experience. As brands who put digital first, the apps offer a new way to shop, find design inspiration and create and manage a registry on-the-go,” Jennifer Kellor, president of Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen, said in a statement. 

Meanwhile, other retailers have invested in mobile apps, too. In November, True Religion launched its mobile app and expects app to generate 10% of its e-commerce sales this year. In October, At Home debuted its own mobile app and expanded its same-day delivery to all locations. And in August, Bath & Body Works unveiled a mobile app alongside its new loyalty program that lets customers earn rewards points, shop and store their gift cards. Last March, Chico’s FAS debuted mobile apps across all of its portfolio brands.

The 2022 holiday season illustrated how critical it is for retailers to have a digital presence. Research from Adobe found that e-commerce sales rose 3.5% year-over-year between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31 to $211.7 billion. The same report found that nearly half of online sales came from smartphones in the 2022 holiday season. 

Dive Brief:

• The Athlete’s Foot has named Darius Billings as its new vice president of marketing, community engagement and its Strategic African American Retail Track program, according to a Tuesday press release. 
• Billings, who has been with the company for 15 years, will continue to report to Matthew Lafone, The Athlete’s Foot’s president and general manager of Americas. Before joining the company, Billings held positions at Nike and AND1 Basketball, per the press release.  
• The company promoted Cassidy Dansberry to marketing manager. The retailer also added two new positions, a social media coordinator and a marketing coordinator. 

Dive Insight:

Billings spearheaded the Strategic African American Retail Track program, which The Athlete’s Foot launched in response to the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, to help economic disparities that affect Black Americans in the footwear industry and beyond. He also played a critical role in creating the company’s Impact Council, which sponsors and supports recreational sports leagues, playgrounds, college scholarships, clothing, food drives and other community initiatives. 

“The Athlete’s Foot is proud to announce the much-deserved promotions of veteran team members Darius Billings and Cassidy Dansberry. They were both instrumental during the past year in driving consumer connectivity and leading TAF’s community-based grassroots initiatives,” Lafone said in a statement. “We are excited to build on the momentum from 2022 and are moving full speed ahead with several game-changing programs and concepts for 2023.”

Alongside The Athlete’s Foot, other retailers have recently brought on new marketing executives. Last August, Kohl’s appointed Christie Raymond as its chief marketing officer following the departure of its former chief marketer Greg Revelle. The following month, Lowe’s promoted Jen Wilson as its new senior vice president of enterprise brand and marketing, but the home improvement retailer’s chief brand and marketing officer, Marisa Thalberg, departed the company after joining in 2020.

Direct-to-consumer brands have also been sprucing up their marketing leadership. Peloton announced earlier this month that it hired Leslie Berland as its chief marketing officer. Earlier this week, Away appointed Carla Dunham as its new chief marketing officer, bringing her experience as Foxtrot's chief merchandising and marketing officer.

Bath & Body Works in August 2022 announced the nationwide launch of its loyalty program, dubbed My Bath & Body Works Rewards, according to a company press release. 

The retailer also announced the My Bath & Body Works App, which allows shoppers to shop, earn points and view exclusive content. An in-app wallet holds rewards, offers and gift cards for shoppers.

Bath & Body Works found that, in test markets, loyalty customers had higher spend and retention rates than an average customer. 

The program went through beta testing with some members and associates prior to its expansion to around 1,750 locations nationwide. “They helped us craft this and that makes it even more special,” Brand President Julie Rosen said in a statement. 

Loyalty program members earn points with every purchase ($1 equates to 10 points), and early access to events and new fragrance launches. Members also get an annual birthday gift, sneak peeks at product drops and first access to limited product offerings. They can also redeem a free product of their choice, up to $16.50, when they spend $100 or earn 1,000 points. 

“We have numerous incentives and fun programs in place to encourage the buzz and enrollment,” Interim CEO Sarah Nash said regarding the program on a call with analysts. 

The company is hoping to enroll a “significant number” of its nearly 60 million customers in the first year. 

Many shoppers reacted positively on social media to the rewards rollout. 

The fact that bath & body works is now doing rewards ???????????? omg finally

— tk (@tippygyal) August 22, 2022

bath & body works is finally getting a rewards program???? .. as much money as i spend in that place

— SUNkissed&spoiLED (@mainly_miss) August 18, 2022

It’s about time Bath&Body Works came out with a rewards program!! As many candles as I purchase I should be in top tier reward status

— Java K ???? (@TrillMFJill) August 18, 2022

“We know that customers expect fun and engaging experiences whether shopping in our store, online or in the app, and we’ve crafted our program to deepen the engagement and connection with our customers,” Joanne Friess, senior vice president of marketing strategy, said in a statement. “I’m especially excited to underscore that a key differentiator from other loyalty programs is that our members can redeem their rewards for free full-size products, not just sample sizes.” 

In the second quarter in 2022, Bath & Body Works said sales dipped slightly with a 5% year-over-year decrease, coming in at $1.6 billion, while net income was $120 million, down 68% compared to the same period in 2021. 

The company said that it was eliminating around 130 roles, the majority of which are leadership positions, in order to simplify its operating structure. At the same time, Chief Operating Officer Chris Cramer resigned his position “to pursue other opportunities.” 

The retailer’s CEO, Andrew Meslow, announced his resignation in February.