How Jennifer Wong, Aritzia President And COO, Proves That Impact And Innovation Lead To Retail Success
Jennifer Wong, President and COO of Aritzia, Photo Credit: Evaan – https://evaan.com
As a fashion brand that is leading with empathy, action and innovation, and an optimistic story in the retail landscape, Aritzia is experiencing success by doubling down on a formula that is working.
Part of the equation?
On the heels of a successful International Women’s Day with its WomenWomen (or ‘Women to the Power of Women’) capsule collection and campaign that was released in March 2021, and a 2020 filled with growth, new store openings and a successful e-commerce strategy, Aritzia is making its mark as the destination for everyday luxury.
Jennifer Wong is the president and COO at Aritzia, an innovative design house and fashion boutique that conceives, creates and develops its own exclusive brands, each with a unique vision and distinct aesthetic point of view. (To date, Aritzia boasts ten signature brands ranging in demographic and price point, including TNA, Babaton and Wilfred.)
Aritzia has also enjoyed well-deserved celebrity hype: The “Super Puff” puffer jacket, which was first released in 2018, has been worn by Ariana Grande, Kendall Jenner, Hailey Bieber, and Margot Robbie, catapulting it to fashion icon status. And Aritzia has also consistently been a favorite of the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle (who has been spotted in several items from the Babaton and Wilfred range).
Some of Aritzia’s activities over the past year that stand out — and were spearheaded by Wong — include its leadership during the pandemic and how it gave back to its communities; creating an optimal framework to enhance its digital selling and e-commerce during store closures; and walking the talk by operating from the mantra that “real change starts from within.”
Over the course of Wong’s tenure with Aritzia, the company has grown from a Canadian retail operation to an internationally recognized name with a successful e-commerce store and a continually growing U.S. presence. Today, Aritzia is a leader in the retail industry with a world-class team, a loyal community and an exciting future ahead of it.
Jennifer Wong, COO and president at Aritzia, Photo Credit: Evaan – https://evaan.com
Aritzia was started by the Hill family inside their 70-year-old department store in Vancouver. When Brian Hill opened the first standalone boutique in 1984, the idea was simple: offer beautiful clothes in aspirational spaces with exceptional service. Today, Aritzia is hitting all the right notes, a testament to the power of selling a trendy product at an attainable price, in elevated yet always inviting store environments.
Wong joined the retailer in 1987 as a style advisor (the term Aritzia uses to refer to its sales associates) at the Robson street store in Vancouver, while studying economics at the University of British Columbia. She rose through the ranks from assistant store manager, to manager, to vice-president of operations. Wong was named COO in 2007, and in 2015, was named president & COO of Aritzia.
While Aritzia is no stranger to designing its own signature brands, it created a limited-edition capsule collection to celebrate an equation at the heart of it all — ‘Women to the Power of Women’ — which dropped ahead of International Women’s Day, this past March.
“‘Women to the Power of Women’ is a simple equation that drives us and our beliefs forward by amplifying women’s voices to make exponential progress towards gender equality and inclusivity for all,” Wong explains. “There were many firsts: our first-ever capsule collection, featuring for the first time our remarkable Aritzia people, and with 100% of proceeds going to our Aritzia Community partner organizations.”
While International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month are notable occasions to celebrate the power of women, Aritzia recognizes women all year long, in leadership and executive roles.
“Every day I’m honored to work alongside a world-class team of smart, ambitious, talented women building and thriving in long-term careers,” Wong shares. “85% of our employee base is made up of women, including 67% of our Aritzia Leadership Team; three of six executive officers are female; and 98% of our retail management team are women. In addition, one of our board committees oversees governance and diversity, which includes consideration for female representation both on our board and in senior management positions. We work hard to create opportunities for young women to join the workforce and gain skills to grow in multiple career paths because championing, supporting, and growing women in leadership and across all levels of our organization is core to our beliefs.”
Tasha Tilberg with her twins, wearing the Cause Mom collection, a unique collaboration with Cause We … [+]
As a followup to this capsule collection, Aritzia released a limited-edition collection, “Cause Mom,” in time for Mother’s Day. The campaign features Canadian models (and mothers) Tasha Tilberg and Janice Alida — photographed with their children.
This represents a collaboration with Cause We Care, a Vancouver-based foundation supporting single moms and children living in poverty in Greater Vancouver, including the Downtown Eastside, one of Canada’s most underprivileged communities.
A core value guiding the brand is its give-back initiative, as evidenced by the work it committed to at the start of the pandemic.
As part of the Aritzia Community Care Program (Aritzia invested $10 million into the program), the brand gifted 10,000 U.S. frontline healthcare workers fighting COVID-19 with custom clothing packages. It also partnered with Good360, the global leader in product philanthropy and purposeful giving, to gift Aritzia Community Relief Packages to those battling on the virus’ frontlines.
The Community Care program is an extension of Aritzia’s overall commitment to organizations that help women and girls succeed at work and in life. It does so through three pillars of impact: poverty alleviation, mentorship and job readiness. To date, it has contributed more than $36 million in product donations, financial support and volunteer hours to non-profits and Aritzia Community partners that share its values.
The Aritzia Community Relief Fund, which was supported by the ongoing loyalty of its customers and the generosity of its suppliers, partners and service providers, reached $20 million (Canadian dollars) . The fund provided financial continuity to Aritzia’s people who were directly or indirectly been affected by its store closures due to COVID-19.
“When we made the decision to close our stores in the middle of March last year, the first thing that was top of mind for us, was our people,” Wong shares. “We took the next couple of weeks to analyze our business and during that time, we kept all of our people employed. It was really important for us not to layoff or furlough anyone. So we did not layoff or furlough anyone as it related to COVID-19.” (Aritzia currently has approximately 4,000 team members.)
Strategic real estate choices have also always been important to the brand, and Aritzia is growing in that realm — and making power moves.
Today, Aritzia can count 101 boutiques, with the recent opening of its Ala Moana boutique in Honolulu, its first in Hawaii. (To date in fiscal year 2021, which started March 2, 2020, Aritzia has opened two new boutiques and expanded or repositioned two existing boutiques in Canada, and opened five new boutiques and expanded an existing one in the United States.)
Architectural and interior photography of Aritzia Super World NYC. Photographed by Eric Soltan – … [+]
The Super Puff pop-up shop, which is an immersive pop-up environment that opened in December 2020 in SoHo, is aptly named “Super World”. Aritzia has a ten-year lease on the iconic former Dean & DeLuca space. (Super World LA is slated to open later this year.)
Super Puff’s immersive pop-up environments, called Super Worlds, were developed by Aritzia’s creative team and Willo Perron, the designer credited with Drake’s flying Ferrari and Jay Z’s 4:44 album, among other projects.
As much as real estate is a priority for Aritzia, the brand’s digital footprint is also a critical part of its strategy. With an engaged Instagram community of over 1.1 million fans and a robust e-commerce infrastructure, the brand managed to stay top of mind during the pandemic and its e-commerce site saw significant growth.
Aritzia’s popular TNA sweatsuit, Photo Credit: Courtesy of Aritzia
Wong explains the growth of Aritzia’s e-commerce: “Upon the closure of our boutiques, we took immediate action to drive e-commerce revenue, adjusting our product, marketing and operational strategies appropriately. Despite the challenges, our beautiful product assortment, best-in-class distribution centre, aspirational website, and response from our loyal clientele led to e-commerce growth in excess of 150% through the end of May 2020.”
In its Q3 results, Aritzia reported that its e-commerce revenue was up 78.5% vs. Q3 last year.
Where impact and internal change are concerned, it’s an ever-evolving process. After the Black Lives Matter protests last summer, Aritzia started by investing $1 million to expand and strengthen its Diversity and Inclusion Program and established an Executive Diversity and Inclusion Committee led by Wong.
To date, its actions include donating $100,000 to Black Lives Matter and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); implementing mandatory training and education on systemic racism, racial inequality and social injustice (courses are required for all current and future members of the team; the education covers conscious and unconscious bias, micro-aggressions, stereotypes, inclusive language, privilege, effective ally-ship, and more).
It’s critical to note that this is merely the beginning — the brand knows it has a lot of work ahead.
“We learn, we refine, we continue to make changes,” Wong shares. “This is certainly a time for everybody to listen and learn, and take action as a result of that. So when we say that ‘real change starts from within,’ we believe that we can impact change most by starting with the 4,000 people that are at Aritzia.”
“We are optimistic about the future,” Wong states. “There is a tremendous amount going on around us, all of us, and it’s a very challenging time for everybody in many different ways. But as long as we continue to do what we think is best and continue to do what we see as right, that will guide us and lead us towards positive outcomes — whether it’s within our company or whether it has a bigger impact on our community.”