Walmart’s Fashion Renaissance Explained: EVP Denise Incandela on Affordable Style & Innovation
Live from eTail West, Walmart EVP Denise Incandela shares how Walmart is reshaping its fashion business with premium private brands, national brand partnerships, and an expanding marketplace. Discover how Walmart is reaching new customers, enhancing in-store experiences, and leveraging AI for a personalized shopping journey.
🔹 [0:14] Live from eTail West: Walmart’s evolving fashion strategy
🔹 [1:07] How Walmart is shifting beyond basics to full lifestyle offerings
🔹 [2:40] National brand partnerships—Reebok, Jessica Simpson, and more
🔹 [3:55] The rise of premium private brands like Scoop & Free Assembly
🔹 [5:46] In-store vs. online assortment strategy & geographic customization
🔹 [7:24] Walmart’s first-ever transactional NYC popup and its massive success
🔹 [8:59] How Walmart is attracting higher-income shoppers with fashion
🔹 [10:31] The role of the Walmart marketplace in expanding fashion options
🔹 [12:15] The "Store of the Future" with digital displays and mannequins
🔹 [13:19] Walmart’s focus on AI, personalization, and micro-influencers
Don’t miss this inside look at Walmart’s fashion transformation, and subscribe for more retail innovation. And special thanks to NetElixir for making our coverage of eTail West possible!
#walmart #walmartfashion #walmartplus #etailwest
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Transcript
Welcome back, everybody.
Speaker A:This is Omnitalk Retail.
Speaker A:I'm Ann Mazinga and we are here live at Etail west once again.
Speaker A:And standing next to me, I'm, I'm so excited because there's so much going on in the fashion world at Walmart and we have welcomed back Denise and Candela, the EVP of fashion for Walmart.
Speaker A:Welcome.
Speaker B:Hi everyone.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker B:Hi everyone.
Speaker B:Thank you for having me.
Speaker B:I love, I love spending time with you.
Speaker A:I know.
Speaker A:Well, every time we talk to you, we just, we learn so much.
Speaker A:And I love fashion.
Speaker A:It's like my passion for this project.
Speaker B:I can see because of how fantastic you look.
Speaker A:I look fantastic because I went shopping and I got this outfit from the Scoop line at Walmart last night.
Speaker A:I have to say I walked into the store here in Palm Springs.
Speaker A:I was really impressed, Denise.
Speaker A:I mean, it's been a little minute since I have done some shopping, clothing shopping at Walmart and things look very different.
Speaker A:Why?
Speaker A:Why is that?
Speaker A:Like what, what's been going on?
Speaker B:Yeah, well, we've been on this transformational journey.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:As you know.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Well, I think about four years now.
Speaker B:About four years ago we started this journey and it was founded in customer research where we found that our customers were spending in higher average unit retails than we were offering.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:And there was a macro opportunity where customers were shifting their spend from department spending, specialty stores to mass.
Speaker B:And we felt like it was our time to cover and support more of our customers.
Speaker B:Closet.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And so we've been focused on overhauling the assortment which you look really good.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker A:So do you.
Speaker A:I like your outfit as well.
Speaker B:I'm wearing Scoop as well.
Speaker A:We need the full length view for this so that you can see the.
Speaker B:Complete outfit and overhauling the experience and then broadening our customer reach and changing perception because we've been a pile them high, let them fly clothing retailer for a long time.
Speaker B:Really good at basics, socks and underwear, tees and denim.
Speaker B:But now we want to cover more lifestyle and more of our closet.
Speaker B:And so this has been the work that we've been doing.
Speaker A:Well, let's like dive into that a little bit.
Speaker A:Denise too.
Speaker A:What is, how is that new, this new kind of collection of brands, both Walmart owned brands and new brands that you're bringing in through the marketplace.
Speaker A:How is this taking shape as a collective Walmart fashion offering when I'm walking in the store in Palm Springs or when I'm shopping online or a few other events that you guys have been testing?
Speaker B:Oh, I would say like Our strategy on the assortment side entails three aspects.
Speaker B:One has been bringing in national brands that everybody wants.
Speaker B:So think Reebok, Jessica Simpson, US Polo association chaps, et cetera.
Speaker B:There's so many national brands that our customers want and we've brought in thousands of over the last few years and then complimented that with our marketplace.
Speaker B:So think StockX where we have pre owned sneakers, really hot sneakers.
Speaker B:Rebag.
Speaker B:Yeah, the Rebag Skechers.
Speaker B:I mean there's so much, I think we just sold a Chanel bag via marketplace yesterday.
Speaker B:So there's so much opportunity there both in store and the extended aisle online.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Then on our private brand side we, we saw a white space, let's say between $15 average unit retails and 40 to $50 average unit retails where there wasn't a lot of people playing there and our customers wanted to spend there.
Speaker B:And we said we all of our private brands were in opening price point $15 and less.
Speaker B:But clearly there was this white space.
Speaker B:And so we worked with Brandon Maxwell, well known women's wear designer and have launched Free Assembly Scoop which is what we're wearing right now.
Speaker B:We work with Sofia Vergara and have a brand with her.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And those price points are more like $15 to $40.
Speaker B:And those brands have been gangbusters.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:I, I have to say, I mean that's walking into the Walmart and seeing like you definitely have your basics there.
Speaker A:But it like even this dress, like we wouldn't.
Speaker A:$30 for a dress is a remarkable, like it's a great quality, it's great price point.
Speaker A:Like how are you deciding kind of what to put into the collection though too?
Speaker A:Like how do you decide what's going to be in store and what's going to be online?
Speaker A:Is that one kind of standard strategy across the board or are you really kind of like adjusting it based on geography and.
Speaker B:Well we definitely adjust it based on geography for sure.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:But I think that the overall strategy is to support more of our customers lifestyle needs.
Speaker B:And so those key items, whether it's from our premium elevated brands, our own private brands are opening price point private brands which frankly needed a whole modernization and overhaul or whether it's our national brands we put the key volume drivers or the best of the best in the stores.
Speaker B:Yes, right.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And then the extension is online.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:And so that's the way we think about it.
Speaker B:Now an urban environment may have a different assortment than a rural environment.
Speaker B:Although what I will say what we've learned and is that originally we put These more premium elevated private brands where we now have designers making them and all this good stuff in the urban, suburban, higher income stores.
Speaker B:And what we found was our rural store operators said, no, no, no, no.
Speaker B:We're the only game in town.
Speaker B:We need to have these brands too.
Speaker B:And so now we're expanding the store base because everybody wants these brands because the price points are so unbelievable.
Speaker B:Compelling.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:That when in a rural environment where we're the only game in store, those customers want those brands too.
Speaker A:So you're doing some exploration outside of the Walmart box.
Speaker A:I want to talk a little bit about that because I was so devastated that I couldn't make the.
Speaker B:We were sad to miss you.
Speaker B:We were sad to miss you in New York.
Speaker A:But talk a little bit about some of these other extensions that you're trying and.
Speaker A:And what brands like that you'll be featuring there and kind of what the future of that looks like.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So I will say just to reinforce three aspects of our strategy.
Speaker B:Changing the assortment, improving the shopping experience online and in store, and then changing perception and broadening our customer reach.
Speaker B:So to change perception and broaden our customer reach, we have all these experiential events.
Speaker B:Think pop up shops with New York Fashion Week both fall and most recently in February.
Speaker B:And I'll talk a little bit more about that.
Speaker B:We did an event with Sofia Vergara last summer.
Speaker B:We had a van that went, a bus that a style bus that went to 40 cities throughout the country to showcase our assortment.
Speaker B:But the pop up shop that we most recently had, our first transactional pop up shop in our history and I think the first transaction ever for Walmart in New York City.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker B:An hour line to get in.
Speaker B:We had to go back to the Philly DC and get more inventories.
Speaker B:Four days.
Speaker B:We had to make a run to the DC to get more inventory.
Speaker B:It was so much fun and the energy was through the roof.
Speaker B:It was two brands and we did more sales with those two brands on average per day than our average store does with 400 brands.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker B:I mean, that's the New York.
Speaker B:Yeah, that was the New York reception and example of why it was so compelling.
Speaker B:A $34 jacket.
Speaker B:A man comes up to me and asks, how much is that jacket?
Speaker B:And I say, 34.
Speaker B: And he says,: Speaker B:I said, no, 34.
Speaker B:That was the energy that we were getting in that store because the assortment looks so great and people were just.
Speaker B:New York was blown away by our prices in style.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Denise, you're a longtime fashion executive You've been at Saks, you've been Ralph Lauren.
Speaker A:Ralph Lauren.
Speaker A:How then do you go back to Walmart, a retailer, you know, really focused on everyday low prices, focused on being that one stop shop for the consumer.
Speaker A:How do you go to your partners on the executive team and say we have this success with the pop up shops now.
Speaker A:Now what?
Speaker A:Like what's the future of that?
Speaker A:Like what, what do you say to them or what do you think is important about this strategy and the continuation of, of concepts like this when you were scaling them beyond just the new fashion?
Speaker B:We've been punching below our weight at Walmart in fashion.
Speaker B:We are the number one food retailer in the United States, huge consumables business.
Speaker B:Fashion was very big, mostly T shirts, underwear and denim and that was it.
Speaker B:And so I think we all appreciate with the highest margin in the box that fashion needs to be much bigger both in store and online.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So there's a lot of excitement, excitement and commitment to ensuring that fashion is a success.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Want to make sure that we continue to support our, I think what people would have thought our customers were in the past, which are those customers, lower household income, more Southern, more rural and they frankly shopped with Walmart because they had to shop at Walmart.
Speaker B:And we take their responsibility to support those customers very seriously.
Speaker B:But there's other customers in the box, higher household income that want to buy fashion.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:Because they want it, not just like they have to have it.
Speaker B:And that's the part that is a new strategy for Walmart that everyone is getting behind and changing.
Speaker B:Perception is a big part of that.
Speaker A:How important do you think the marketplace is in all of this?
Speaker A:In building this cross functional or cross brand shopping experience when it comes to fashion?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Critical.
Speaker B:I mean I have a digital background.
Speaker B:I worked in digital for 20 years and I would say that a couple of things.
Speaker B:One, we can't win in fashion without being relevant and big in digital and we can't be relevant and big in digital without having a really robust marketplace.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So marketplace is a key because we want to provide the endless aisle to our consumers and if they want to come in store, we have a great assortment in store.
Speaker B:But we have a much bigger assortment online and we should have a much bigger assortment online.
Speaker B:So it's a very important part of the strategy.
Speaker A:Well, especially as you're, you're, you're gaining more upper household income shoppers.
Speaker A:I have to imagine that, you know me for example, like I didn't know you could search fendi on Walmart.com.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And, or on Google and be taken to Walmart.com so I imagine that it's going to be, be really important for Walmart and your team, Denise, to continue to make sure that you, when they're coming there, you know, whether it's the first time they're, they're going to Walmart.com for fashion or the third time that you're providing that.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Assortment.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And you know, our 100k plus household income penetration has increased in the last few years.
Speaker B:So offering, and of course, not surprisingly, it's higher online than it is in the stores.
Speaker B:So offering that robust assortment so that we can satisfy all of her needs, including her closet.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:Someone who's buying a thousand dollar TV can probably spend twenty dollars on a dress.
Speaker B:And so someone who's buying a two hundred dollars KitchenAid can probably, you know, prefers to spend twenty dollars on a dress or more.
Speaker B:So what, we weren't servicing her before.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:And so now we're saying, you know what, we should be servicing her closet in a much more powerful way.
Speaker B:Not just down denim and tees, but her lifestyle needs, which is what you and I are wearing right now.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I mean I again, very impressed by the shopping experience from swimwear.
Speaker A:When I caught myself adding so many things to my basket, I was like, this is, I like this.
Speaker B:And I like appreciate that.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A: , you know, as you set out on: Speaker A:What, what kind of, whether it's technology or store experiences or assortment or strategy.
Speaker A:What's, what's kind of top of mind for you?
Speaker B:Yeah, I mean there's a, there's a couple of big things.
Speaker B:So one, we continue to modernize our own private brands.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:We've had some big relaunches, we've retired some big billion dollar brands and launched as new brands.
Speaker B:We've got some other brand relaunches and new brands coming up.
Speaker B:So we're really excited about that for this year because our assortment is everything.
Speaker B:Continuing to bring in great marketplace brand partners like Stockx and Rebag and partners like that so you can continue to buy all of your needs with us.
Speaker B:We're rolling out our store of the future which is, you know, mannequins and digital displays and feels much more like a fashion shopping experience.
Speaker B:It wasn't in your Palm Springs store, but we're gonna, you know, to hundreds and hundreds more stores.
Speaker B:We have 4,000 doors and we're in almost a quarter of the doors today.
Speaker B:And we'll continue to roll that out and then, you know, continuing to change perception.
Speaker B:So it might be a fashion authority partnership.
Speaker B:It might be more experiential opportunities.
Speaker B:It's certainly our creator program and micro influencers.
Speaker B:And then underpinning all of that is figuring out ways to leverage AI so that we can be much more efficient, we can bring personalization to the customer and we can improve our shopping experience.
Speaker A:Amazing.
Speaker A:Denise, I'm so excited.
Speaker A:Thank you so much for taking time.
Speaker B:Thank you for having me.
Speaker A:Denise will be on stage here in just a few moments at Etail, so please stay tuned.
Speaker A:Want to give a big shout out and thank you to Net Elixir for making all of our coverage here at Etail possible.
Speaker A:You can check them out at booth for 501.
Speaker A:And until next time, be careful out there.
