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Dive briefs:
- Destination XL’s chief marketing officer, Ujjwal Dhoot, plans to leave the company on October 11, the retailer said in a press release.
- Dhoot joined the company in 2019 as Chief Digital Officer and has since been promoted to Marketing Officer. In this position, Dhoot helped see a large and tall men’s apparel retailer undergoing a dramatic turnaround over the course of the pandemic.
- Dhoot’s successor is James Reath, most recently Senior Marketing Executive at Bed Bath & Beyond and before that at Macy’s.
Dive Insight:
Destination XL’s recovery over the past two years has been linked in part to marketing efforts as retailers look to become more personalized, cost-effective and customer-first. The key to it all is data and the company’s marketing platform.
“The reality is that customers are changing, trends are changing, and their behavior changes so often that we need to keep up. So we need to invest in continuing to understand our customers. there is,” Dhoot told Retail Dive in a 2021 interview. “And our holy grail that we pursue every day in our experience is his one-on-one, personalized experience that we deliver to our customers across all channels.”
Retailers at the time were working to synchronize real-time inventory management with direct customer communication. For example, I was sending emails to customers informing them that a particular product was in stock.
Marketing is important for retailers, and while generalist apparel distributors may offer a large selection, Destination XL is one of the few companies that specializes in size. We have made every effort to inform our customers.
“The reality is that there are a lot of people in this space and it’s like a night job for them. It’s like a part-time side job,” CEO Harvey Kanter said in an interview with Retail Dive earlier this year. I speak at the beginning. “What we do is only what we do.”
Efforts so far have been successful. In 2020, the company, like many other apparel retailers, was in financial trouble. Temporary store closures combined with a secular decline in apparel shopping put pressure on cash reserves and balance sheets. As the Destination XL hits watch lists sometime in 2021, not only sales but market share have grown.
That turnaround continued into the tumultuous year of 2022. In the second quarter, many apparel retailers reported lower sales and profits as consumers refrained from discretionary purchases. Net profit compared to last year’s second quarter.
The company has not disclosed why Dhoot is leaving, but said he will assist in the transition as Reath assumes the role starting Monday.
Kanter said in a press release that Reath’s appointment is a “continuous transformational and transformational effort to build on the organization’s continued focus on customer engagement through data-driven personalization, loyalty and digital marketing.” It underscores our commitment.”