On today’s episode, Sandy Gilsenan, Senior Vice President of Retail at Warby Parker, and Kim Nemser, Chief Merchandising Officer and Head of Product Strategy at Warby Parker, discuss revolutionizing and customizing the eyewear industry, using omnichannel tactics to create trust with customers, and Warby Parker’s journey to its 200th store.
Hello and welcome to Winning Retail. This episode features an interview with Sandy Gilsenan, Senior Vice President of Retail at Warby Parker, and Kim Nemser, Chief Merchandising Officer and Head of Product Strategy at Warby Parker.
On today’s episode, Kim and Sandy discuss revolutionizing and customizing the eyewear industry, using omnichannel tactics to create trust with customers, and Warby Parker’s journey to its 200th store.
—
“It's here in our hometown in New York City, opening up our 200th store this weekend. And I think that these incredible experiences that we've been able to really provide for our customers by having these in-store interactions have been really, I think, incredibly memorable.
Not just for our customers, but also for our store. The idea of seeing one of our customers leave so happily, having this holistic vision care offering offered to them in one of our locations to me is still an incredibly unique proposition, especially for our customers to see our frames live and in person.” - Sandy Gilsenan
“A typical journey as the customer first meets our brand through a home try-on program, they get those five frames. Maybe they go online to see them, maybe they heart some, and then they go to a store. They come to the store informed about our brand. And I think one of the things that I always applaud, is our store associates are, best in class in terms of training, learning about customer experience.
We really focus on that. So I think it's this idea, you know, the word omnichannel is probably a bit overused, but we sort of like to say we're gonna create as many channels as our customers dictate necessary for them to trust the brand and find the product that they love.” - Kim Nemser
—
Show Notes
—
Sponsor
This podcast is presented by Dell Technologies and Intel. Together they help you realize digital transformation across retail by driving IT innovation to better engage with today’s connected consumer. Learn more at DellTechnologies.com/retail and Intel.com/retail.
—
Links
Connect with Sandy on LinkedIn
Narrator: Hello and welcome to Winning Retail. This episode features an interview with Sandy Gilsenan, Senior Vice President of Retail at Warby Parker, and Kim Nemser, chief Merchandising Officer and head of product strategy at Warby Parker. On today's episode, Kim and Sandy discuss revolutionizing and customizing the eyewear industry using omnichannel tactics to create trust with customers and Warby Parker's journey to its 200th store.
But first a word from our sponsor. This podcast
Kim: is presented by Dell Technologies and Intel. Together we help you realize digital transformation across retail by driving it innovation to better engage with today's connected consumer, learn more at dell technologies.com/retail and
Narrator: intel.com/retail. Now, please enjoy this interview between Sandy Gilsenan and Kim Nemser and your host Tony Saldanha.
Tony: Hello and welcome to a new episode of Winning Retail. My name is Tony Saldanha. I'm the host of the podcast that's been designed for retail executives like yourselves. We try to turn the biggest retail disruptions into strategic opportunities. And with that in mind, I'm really excited to be talking with Warby Parker, represented by Sandy Gilsenan.
Senior Vice President, retail and Kim Nemser, chief Merchandising Officer and head of product strategy. Hey, welcome to the show, Sandy and.
Kim: Hey Tony. Thanks so much for having us. We're so happy to be here. We're excited to
Sandy: get to do a podcast together,
Kim: so, oh, is it?
Tony: Okay. Alright. This is your first together. I know you've, you're very with media, but I get the pleasure of being the first ever host of both
Kim: of you together.
You do, and we go back a long way. We've known each other for almost 15 years, but we've never done a podcast together, so we're very excited. Oh, that is
Tony: awesome. We're gonna have a little bit of fun. I'm gonna start with a really important question for both of you. So Kim, what's your favorite Warby Parker
Kim: frame?
Okay, this is a hot topic because my frame changes all the time, but the frame that I've stuck with is actually the one that I named after my son. It's called Haze, ah, and also the one that I'm wearing right now. Beal. I like a square frame called Beal and a round frame called Haze, but. The one that's named after my son is always a favorite.
Oh,
Tony: that's very nice. Hey, what an opportunity to name a frame after your sons.
Kim: We just hope that it stays selling well.
Tony: I I'm sure it's gonna be great. How about you,
Sandy: Sandy? Oh, you know, I really like to alter my look. Okay. And so my frame right now that is top of my list is K. This is actually a frame that is available.
Sun that I had made into optical because I love the smokey quartz, the spray. It's great for Levis. So this is currently my favorite. I've got a big case of frame, so I switch it up quite a bit. The frames are my fashion. Oh, that's awesome.
Tony: That's awesome. Yeah. I need glasses mostly for reading and the current ones that I have.
My daughters rib me, they say, you look like Harry Porter.
Kim: So Tony, we, we can help you with that. We know some people that could really outfit you some cool frames. Oh, that's true. Hey, it's
Tony: great to have connections. Is that what we. Help you with. Oh, there you go. I knew there was a good reason, but no, seriously, I'm looking forward to this conversation, but on behalf of our listeners, I'm gonna have you introduce yourselves, Warby Parker.
Really the Amazon of eyeglasses doesn't need any introduction, but Sandy, if you wouldn't mind, let's start with yourself. Sure.
Sandy: I joined Warby Parker actually in 2018. I really can't believe we're going on five years for me, cause I've gotta be honest, it feels like five. Which I feel such a good thing, but I joined as the senior Vice president of retail and before that I worked for Sweaty Betty usa.
And there I was the SVP of North America where I managed the company's wholesale program and all of our US locations. But the real big chunk of my career I actually spent at J. Crew. So this is also where I worked with Kim. We had a chance to work together for. Few years jcr. My last role at JCR was I was the VP of store operations for JCR retail J Crew factory in Madewell.
And before that I was the regional vice president for JCR in the Northeast in Canada. And I really started my retail journey with J Crew actually as a store leader on the West coast. So it was incredible to grow through the organization, hold every role in retail leadership, and then end up exiting J Crew as that head of operations role, which kind of took me full circle in my retail journey.
Oh, that's
Tony: awesome. And I know you come from a storied background of modern retail, including, I believe, somewhere up their gap and a few others. Yes. But oh yeah. What a find for Warby Park, and of course Kim yourself as well. Do you mind introducing.
Kim: Absolutely. So my journey is not quite as straight of a path as Sandy's.
After college, I actually moved to New York to work in finance. I started at the UBS Investment Bank and then moved over to the Blackstone Group and about four years in recognized that the thing I was most excited to really focus on was consumer stocks. And I think part of it is I just loved the tangible product.
I love this idea of consumer psychology. And really just took a pretty sharp right turn and said, I might, I wanna be in the retail industry. I don't just wanna look at the ups and downs of it. I wanna get in the soup a little bit as I like to say. So I ended up moving over into the fashion world and first started in Todd's the luxury Italian goods house, and it was amazing to understand luxury.
Spent a lot of time over in Europe and really understanding who that customer was, but. I really wanted to be on the ground even more and own what we like to call the open to buy, and I loved that J. Crew was this vertically integrated brand and at the time it was Americana, right? Yeah. Everyone was looking to that.
So met Mickey Drexler and he took a chance on me. I didn't have the traditional merchandising background that most merchants have coming into the j. Crew family, but it was amazing. I met people like Sandy there, really changed my career. Left there most recently as the vice president of women's apparel and footwear and handbags and accessories, and we're flying high.
It was a pretty amazing time, but more than anything, j Crew really taught me the power of the cus. Customer and really listen to the customer and understanding what they wanted. And so seven years ago, I joined Warby Parker. We had about 15 stores. We were pretty scrappy and hungry and trying to figure out exactly what our retail footprint would look like and how to establish ourselves.
And pretty soon after getting there, I said to Neil, if you want. Someone that can build out our retail fleet, you need to hire Sandy. So we've worked together a long time and so it was really fun to to get her on board and be on this journey together. But yeah, the path has been interesting, but I think one of the things I always take away is this mix of understanding the math and the finance, but also having a true love of product has allowed me to pursue this opportunity here.
That's
Tony: the best combination, isn't it? The business numbers as well as the creative side. Clearly it shows now, because you mentioned just a second ago, 15 stores at that time, and I believe, if I'm not mistaken, you guys are looking at a slightly higher number as you open
Kim: York. It's actually a big weekend for us.
Yeah.
Tony: 200 store. Is that right?
Kim: You got it. Yep. It's been pretty wild to go on this ride and see us at 200 stores and not stopping anytime soon.
Tony: Congratulations. Let me go back to you, Sandy. What a wild ride, especially in an area like eyeglasses and where you, as I was saying earlier, you're known as the Amazon of eyeglasses, but think in terms of 200 stores in Amazon.
Tell me a little more about why this is happening. Why so many store.
Sandy: I think that our stores provide such an incredible opportunity for our customers to engage with our friends. So I think as we think about 200 stores at Warby Parker, as you mentioned, it's an incredible achievement. I pinched myself, when I started, we were only actually at about 60 stores.
Mm-hmm. So that's five years ago. And to think about the growth right now is just extraordinary. When I think that it's even more poignant. To think about where this 200 store is. It's here in our hometown in New York City. We're opening up our 200 store this weekend, and I think that these incredible experiences that we've been able to really provide for our customers by having these in-store interactions have been really, I think, incredibly memorable.
And not just for our customers, but also for our store teams. The idea of seeing one of our customer. Leave so happily. Having this holistic vision care offering offered to them in one of our locations, to me, is still an incredibly unique proposition, especially for our customers to see our frames live and
Kim: in
Tony: person.
So Kim, you know, when you kind of sold Warby Parker on the idea of store of expansion and bringing in Sandy and things like that, how did you envision the customer experience being different as a result of having so many.
Kim: I think when I think about Warby Parker, when we first started, what made us unique was this home tryon program.
Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. We put glasses in people's homes and it was as much for them to learn about the brand and, and create brand awareness and also trust the product. And it also, I think people think of us, as you said, as the Amazon, and we really. Started as a direct-to-consumer online business, but the founders never thought about it as an online business.
Mm-hmm. But really, we're so focused on the brand itself. What is Warby Parker and the customer experience, and how do we meet our customers where they wanna be met? And so when I think about the last 12 years, our brand has evolved a lot as. Sandy said, we have this holistic vision care offering now. We've brought doctors into our stores.
We've launched a lot of technology, whether it's our virtual vision test, we have virtual try on. You can pick up your phone and try any glasses on, and I think we like to call ourselves medium agnostic. We just wanna meet the customer where they wanna be met. So if you wanna. A typical journey as the customer first meets our brand through a home tryon program, they get those five frames.
Maybe they go online to see them, maybe they heart some, and then they go to a store. They come to the store informed about our brand. And I think one of the things that I always applaud, Sandy, is our store associates are, Best in class in terms of training, learning about customer experience. We really focus on that.
So I think it's this idea, the word omnichannel is probably a bit overused, but we like to say we're gonna create as many channels as our customers dictate necess. Theory for them to trust the brand and find the product that they love.
Tony: And that's really the, the one thing that the pandemic has taught us, hasn't it, which is to be where the customer is and not get too hung up on.
We are one channel or two channels, or even omnichannel, as you correctly said. And of course, technology does play a huge role in that. And I want to come back to technology. On this show, we try and drive the optimization of retail and technology, but I wanna go back a little bit and talk about the brand Warby Parker itself, right?
Because what you have done with a category that not many people taught off as. Anything more than being a commodity. Once upon a time, you've made it exciting as Warby Parker, you've brought in designer type of frames at an incredibly affordable cost and in a delightful customer experience. What is it about the Warby Parker brand that makes it truly stand?
Kim: If we think back to 2010, when we first launched War, Parker was really founded with this mission to inspire, impact the world with vision, with purpose, but also with style. And this is an industry that had really taken the customer out of the equation to some degree. You went to your eye doctor. The doctor brought out a tray of glasses.
You didn't know how much they cost. They told you what you needed to buy. Maybe they gave you five choices and you felt a little bit captive in that moment of, I guess I need these. And I think when our founders were thinking about this industry, wait a second, let's put the power back in the consumer's hands.
Let's create an experience that makes them feel empowered, makes them feel educated and excited, right? These are on your face when you first get that pair of glasses, they're part of your personal style in addition to allowing you the vision. So I think that was always in the back of their mind is this is an industry that has had the same thing for so long.
How do we look at it a little bit? Differe? No pun intended. But then so they're all of a sudden we are now offering designer quality glasses. We're offering contacts, we're offering eye exams, vision tests, meeting the customers in all these different places, and doing it in a really fun and exciting way.
One of the core values of Warby Parker is to inject fun and quirkiness into everything that we do, and I think customers can feel that with the artwork that we put in our stores. Even when the home Tryon box arrives at your home and the. The branding that happens with that. It's all very deliberate and it's all very much with the purpose to make the customer excited about the journey.
I think the other piece I would be remiss and not really focusing on is this do good element. Mm-hmm. And the fact that you have this, buy a pair, give a pair. So we're really teaching customers that you can do good in the world while also doing good for yourself. And so since the day that we launched, we've stayed true to the founder's belief in vision for all, truly vision for all, which is why every pair of glasses or sunglasses that we sell, a pair is distributed to someone in need.
And in the last year, we've reached a pretty major milestone. We've donated over 10 million pairs of glasses around the world. We do that. I know it's crazy to say 10 million. You think about that's bigger than New York City and all of its boroughs. Every single person, three pair of glasses, right? You put that in context, you think, wow, we, we did that also while building this really cool, interesting, scalable business.
And we do it through two ways, which are interesting. One is social entrepreneurship. So we empower adults across the world with training opportunities. They get to administer the eye exams and sell the glasses for really affordable prices, this microeconomic type approach. And then we also do through direct donation, we have pupils project here in the US and we go into schools and we meet these kids in kindergarten and we teach them about eye exams.
We give them one pair to. School and one pair to take home with them. Mm-hmm. And this can really change their entire educational journey. So I think there's also that piece that we were at the forefront of really the do good element. And I, it's ingrained in everything we do, every customer experience, every design decision that we make, and.
For me, that makes us really special. It
Tony: does, because I think in, in, in many ways it, it goes with the equity of the company, not just great designs at affordable costs, but also purpose-driven. And I was aware of by a pair, give a pair. I, you all have been famous in there. What I hadn't completely appreciated until you just mentioned it, Kim, is how that kind of permeates the entire organization and how this is not just something that's a separate arm of Warby.
But it is something that's executed by everybody in the organization that's unique, that's very different. I'll
Kim: tell you, it comes up in every single interview. Mm-hmm. As a reason that they're excited by Warby Parker and that they just feel at this stage in their careers that they want to be part of something bigger than just selling a product.
And I, it's been an amazing tool in that sense as people want to work here because of that, do good and we call it feel good element.
Tony: Yeah. Sandy, I was gonna ask you, so in, in all of your 25 plus years in the retail industry, we've come through many organizations that are very big, very strong, also purpose driven, but what makes this bio pair giver, pair unique for you?
Sandy: For us, I think as Kim talked about, the model that we have around really even just if you think about social entrepreneurship and thinking about I pair Give a pair has changed people's lives. And I think that for our teams out in the retail field, it is so important to work for a company with purpose.
And I think, we'll, Parker really gives them the idea. We share that with our customers when they come in because it is such an important element of our. Because truly when you think about giving a pair of glasses to a customer in need, it isn't just, it isn't just words. We are actually standing behind our actions, and that really matters to so many of our team members and our customers are really compelled to continue to their journey along with Warby Parker because they know what their contribution means to the greater.
Tony: It is truly a good model of modern retail where motivations to go to a particular product are not just driven by quality and cost, which as we said, you already had that initially, but on top of that, you have to do good element, which is just incredible. What to pivot a little bit in the conversation, because there's one other thing that's really exciting about Warby Parker, which is your business model itself.
And what is very interesting about your business model is that you seem to have found a way to. To vertically integrate how you put together your product and all the way through actually having an impact on the end consumer. That's a very different model from what, at least in my knowledge, existed previously in the eyeglasses business, where you might have specialized from getting glasses from some providers and frames from others, and then of course you bring it together and you sell it and so on and so forth.
Why did WY Parker decide to have a vertically integrated business?
Sandy: Yeah, I'll start by talking at least about the stores because I think it's really, it's such an important part of our journey from the start. Our journey really to opening our physical stores was actually pretty organic. Within 48 hours of our launch, we actually had to temporarily suspend our H T O program because we ran an inventory.
It was just such neat time. But you think about that, we then started getting questions from customers. They. See if they could visit our Warby Parker offices. So at the time we had Neil's apartment, our co-founder and co c o. So he just took a risk and invited customers over. Oh wow. We did purchasing on our co-founder and co CEO's laptop, Dave Oaa.
So it really was an organic trial and an organic entry into physical retail, and we did it in a less conventional way. I think it was really clear to us that our customers just wanted the opportunity to touch and feel these. And I think that we really felt this is a moment where we could really see Warby Parker as a place where physical retail could absolutely be successful, given the response that we had from our customers who were so eager to really see our frames by any means necessary.
So when we opened our first location in New York City, we included a showroom. Which was so incredibly successful. We thought it was time for us to actually launch physical retail, and we experimented with a couple of different temporary retail concepts before we actually created and opened our first store, one of which was in a vacant garage in Soho.
Wow. In 2011. Okay. What we did was we had a holiday spectacle bazaar. We transformed this garage into a holiday shopping destination from brands that we really admired and. Glasses. Yeah. For our customers in the New York area to come in and try on. And then in 2012 we launched the retail class trip, and this was a mobile showroom, yellow school bus.
Wow. That, uh, you know, was outfitted with leather couches and wood shelling and vintage books. And it gave us so much data to understand where we parked the bus, where that customer was coming from, really helped us determine some of our first locations and really taught us also how important it was for us to have flexible technology to be able to meet those customers' needs very quickly.
And we see it was the combination of experiences and these learnings that really, really helped us to think about how a customer wants to visit our stores. Yes. So we really spent the time in those initial kind of temporary retail locations, figuring out how to have those conversations with our customers, how to train our teams on our product, how to introduce Warby Parker to the customer.
And I think that is foundational that we continue to this day. I've worked at, as you've mentioned, Tony, so many retailers. The training at Warby Parker is extraordinary and unique. Mm-hmm. What we give to our team members and our employees and how much they absorb is frankly, Unbelievable to me. I walk in after a team member has gone through a week and plus some training, and what they're able to offer to our customers is really quite extraordinary and I think really unique in the marketplace.
As I mentioned earlier about the importance of technology as part of our customer journey, we also really took so many of those early learnings and we knew that we had to create a way to even just check a customer out. And as a long time eyeglass wear. It's a really long process to have your glasses checked out, to have your transaction.
I started chopping with Warby Parker before I was an employee here, before I started working here, and I was overwhelmed by how fast the transaction was. No one took me to a big register behind a counter. Instead, I was met with a really sleek iPad and someone walked me through a transaction and I found out now that I work here, that we actually created our point of sales system.
Yeah, ourself. And we call it freedom of everything. And that to me, I was blown away that we had an in-house tech team who was able to really meet the demands of the customers dynamically and create a platform that the teams helped to really inspire and create, given customer feedback how we wanted to show the product and how we really wanted to sell to them.
When I think the last point that is continuing to evolve with our holistic tention offering is really thinking about comprehensive eye exams. Become such a big part of our business, we now have the ability in over 150 of our stores to be able to offer prescriptions for glasses and contacts and continue to make our efforts around holistic vision care as accessible
Tony: as possible.
That's awesome. By the way, that's an incredible story of the early days of opening up the offices because it demonstrates that the quirky. Environment that you talked about also helped you to learn about the customer and what they want and who they are and so on and so forth. And of course we talked about technology.
I, I, I'll come back to that in just a second, but the, the rooting of everything in consumer understanding and what they want and how they shop, Kim, that, that is invaluable, isn't it? Because it's the one thing that continues to distinguish Wary Parker from others. You seem to understand. What customers need, just that little better than many of your other competi.
Kim: We like to think so, Tony for sure. And we really value our customers. So as Sandy said, from the early days when we had that school bus driving around and understanding even just customer demographics, age preferences, when we thought about increasing our lens portfolio, offering new lenses, expanding our assortment, launching sunglasses, launching prescription sunglasses, all of that came from.
Really from our customers directly telling us, we have an in-house consumer insights team that we really leverage with surveys and just understanding what they want. Of course, other things like the Home Tryon program was really essential to figuring out what customers wanted from us. Just the selection of those five frames online that get sent to the house.
We then track which ones do they order, which, which online, which one continues to get put in a box, but never gets bought. Once it gets to the customer's face, maybe there's a fit problem. Maybe there's a quality problem. Maybe the color that's showing up online isn't what the customer expects when they get it in hand.
All of that data is then used for myself and my design team to say, how can we continue to evolve this product? So I think that's been a huge part of the evolution of the brand, is we rely really heavily on the data, specifically from our customers. I like to say my job is very much art. And science and where the two intersect.
I think the other piece is the more stores that we've opened, the more we really can be on the frontline of listening to what our customers say. Sandy and I were just on the west coast last week. We did 12 stores in three days and we gained so much information. I know it was quite a slog, but we learned a ton.
A couple of trends that, that we heard about a year and a half ago when we went to these same stores as they want more green frames. Guess what? 18 months later we have more green frames and it's our best selling color right now, so, Understanding, especially with something as personal as glasses on your face, that the customer is what they're buying, what they're not buying, what they're converting on, what they're putting back on the shelves.
That's how we can do our jobs better. I think it just is the very root of the founder's original. Concept, which was vision for all, vision with a purpose and creating a customer experience that was unique and special and really memorable. I think that's one of the things we know. We have an NPS score of 80 and I think that, oh, that's remarkable.
Yeah, I'd like to say it is remarkable and we hold ourselves to that standard, but it's because we care so much about our customers and the experience they have from the moment that they're introduced to the brand, to the, the moment they inserted a contact lens or put those glasses on their faces and we hope they tell all of their friends and family just how great we are.
Tony: They certainly seem to, and both of you mentioned technology, and this is something that I've been looking forward to talking with you because at your heart, you're a purpose-driven organization. Yes, you're a consumer understanding organization, but more and more I'm starting to realize you're also a technology organization from your prescription check app very early on until your virtual try on and several others.
How do you think, I'm gonna start with you, Kim. How do you think. Technology's role in the whole consumer experience, and what is it? Helps you select what technology to invest in, when it comes to retail,
Kim: when customers come to us with an issue, if there's a way we can solve it. So we really start with the customer complaint or the customer issue.
Why is it so hard to get my prescription renewed? Or do I have to come into the doctor? If my prescription's the same and it's expired, or I don't have time to come to a store, is there a way I can try these glasses on easier before? Or I come to the store, I don't have that much time. Are there things that I can do to make it easier when I get to the store?
So we, in that same vein of listening to customers, the top list of things that make. Purchasing glasses, getting prescriptions are nude. The most difficult pieces, those hurdles are the ones that we try to solve with technology where we can. So really even home Tryon, when you think about that first piece that was, Hey, we don't have stores yet, but we know that customers want to try their glasses on their phases.
How do we bring that to their homes? The evolution of home Tryon was, Hey, maybe you don't wanna wait that long, and you want to see immediately if these glasses look good on your face. So then that's where virtual Tryon came in. So you can see how any of our frames look and feel on your face from your computer, your tablet, your phone.
And really make that easy. It also helps when they come into the stores, we created the like button. So if you heart something that you like, then our advisors can pull that up. Oh, we see that you've tried these frames on. Let's find them in the store immediately and make that customer experience that much more personalized and easy.
Oh, and then of course the virtual vision test and prescription check. Same thing if you have a type of prescription that's pretty easy to renew. We have this app now that allows certain eligible users, depending on their prescriptions, renew these glasses and contact lens prescriptions from. Anytime using just their iPhone.
I think you take this quiz, we understand if you're eligible and they go through this 10 minute vision test again, how can we make this easier for you? And also as seamless and fun as possible? But really for us, technology starts with the consumer issue and how can we solve it in an innovative way. That, that
Tony: computes with earlier conversation about being completely consumer focused.
And you certainly as an organization have found a way to start with consumer needs and then weave in the role of technology, which is just amazing. And then Sandy, in, in your day-to-day work, how do you use technology? How does this change what you do? Let's say on a daily
Sandy: basis? I will say, Tony, I'd love to talk a little bit.
Some of the technology, at least that we've seen in our stores that we've been able to put into place that makes my role and also our team's role so much easier. As Kim mentioned earlier, we really listen to our field teams. We create tools that just make the interaction with our customers that much more seamless.
And I think when I get to go to the stores, which I try to do really often, because if you're in retail, you've gotta love the store experience. It's the best part of my day. But also hearing what is the technology that's gonna make their job easier. So through the pandemic, we started with digital pupillary distances.
So to be able to take some of the weight off of our team members, we rolled. Different technology improvements such as frame recommenders so that we've got quite a bit of assortment in the store. How do we help to aid our teams with the right technology just to make their jobs easier? And in order to make our customers really well informed about products that work for them, find the right frames that help them to say, Hey, if I love the, what's the frame, that's like the tea.
How do I offer assortment in a really dynamic way? And we were. Put a lot of this technology together over the course of the last couple years to be able to enable better transactions, more seamless transactions for our teams. And I think it's been a big win for us across retail, and I think that's where, at least I think about my own personnel technology.
Sure. I think about that all the time, but I really start off every day by thinking, what are some of the technology solutions that'll make our team's jobs
Tony: easier? Clearly, I think it's one of those distinctive elements that. Somehow or the other has been integrated so well into your entire business model.
It just works, and I think your customers really do appreciate the opportunity to be listened to and magically served based on different inputs. They may provide some of them online, some of them in store, so on and so forth. Again, well done. I think it's a great example of how technology can disrupt retail and can be leveraged as a competitive advantage.
Command Sandy. Covered a fair number of topics and we could continue on because this is such a, an exciting company and roles that you have. But we're kind of at the point in time in our show where we want to know you as individuals a little better. And so I wanna ask you, do you wanna play along? We're gonna do a lightning round, and I'm gonna ask you maybe just one short question and see what you come up with.
Huh? Let's start this. If you, I'm gonna start with you, Kim. If you had this Magic Genie opportunity to be sponsored by any brand other than Wary Parker in the world, what would you pick and why? Ooh.
Kim: To be sponsored by, yes. Oh my goodness, this question's amazing. I have a list of 15, but I think I probably want to be sponsored by Nike.
Yeah, I love all things sports. I would love this opportunity to have behind the scenes training to make sure that my running shoes fit my feet exactly the way I wanted them to, but also make Christmas for my kids a lot easier. Cause I was sponsored by Nike. Oh,
Tony: that's awesome. And hey, you never know. We have some really powerful listeners.
I
Kim: have an. I love to run. I love yoga. You name it. All right.
Tony: Okay. Duly noted. Sandy, what's the most fun app on your phone right
Sandy: now? Oh gosh. I have lots and lots of apps on my phone, but I'm gonna tell you about a recent one that I downloaded because we put a nest in our home recently, and I think what's really fun is to control the temperature for my family so I can sit in bed and you know, Everyone runs a little bit cooler than I am, so they want the house to be a little warm.
It runs really hot. So, you know, I get in bed and I'm like, I'm gonna punch that down to 63 degrees. Nobody
Kim: notices.
Tony: I resonate with this because at our, in our home, we have got nest wars, so yes,
Kim: it's
Sandy: true, Tony. It's a war. It's,
Tony: oh my. Kim, as you think of various retail experiences you've had, tell us one that stands out and.
Kim: So it's part retail, part hospitality. But we are going on a trip, a ski trip. You can sense the theme for between Christmas and New Year's. And I am blown away by the preparation with the woman that we're working with ahead of this trip. Everything from the temperature of the room to the types of pillows that we would like to the types of skiers.
And then within that, that hotel experience, they want to know what time will be around. It's just the personalization that's. With this experience feels very new and fresh. And I do think it's kind of probably the new wave of retail and just customer experience in general is we want to be seen, we want to be heard, and we want to know that you are happy to have our business and it will create this loyalty.
And this is unparalleled in terms of just every single little detail that's been put in place before we've even set foot on the, in the.
Tony: Oh, that's such an awesome story. Uh, good for you. That's a fabulous attention to detail there.
Kim: I know it makes me wanna do that in my own life. Am I doing enough of these things?
And then of course, Sandy and I are always thinking, how can we translate since the Warby experience being so customer focused? And I think that's part and parcel of like you walk into our store, we want you to know that we know who you are and we're happy you're here. Oh,
Tony: that is fabulous. Sunny, let's try, what's your favorite productivity?
Sandy: Oh, so I have a recent one, Tony. Okay. I was a driver into New York City. I know that's crazy. Why was I driving to New York? I felt like it was, I was really able to make phone calls. Now with New York traffic, I have to leave at 6:00 AM so no one's awake at six, and that would be a little crazy if I was calling up the team at 6:00 AM So I've transitioned to taking the training and.
I worked and lived in New York, in the New York area for a really long time, and I've gone back and forth from driving and taking the train, but now my time and how I'm able to make things happen on the train is so efficient. Yeah. So I'm able to work on the train on the way in, and you feel like you get to the office and you've already had a head start on your day.
And you can leave and finish out and actually put your work away and spend quality time with your family and not feel like you are trying to catch up at the end of the night. So it's actually a really comforting way to leave your day behind and be able to focus in on your family when you're home.
Kim: Train Sandy now that Sandy's on the trains that come during her train time, we're like, ah, she's on, that's on that.
Tony: Okay. So yes, Sandy was on the L train from 6 35 to 6 42. That's when
Kim: on, on the train.
Tony: That's a good one though. We have a daughter that lives in New York, so I'm in there fairly often, but they're improving wifi access and a whole bunch of stuff out there.
Yeah, that's a good one. All right. Hey, thank you, bill. We could continue to chat for a very long time, as I said, but before I let you go, I want to pick your brains for. Insights and tips for our listeners. I'm gonna start with you, Sandy. What advice would you give to somebody that's at their very beginning of a retail career after having spent 25 years?
What are the things that you wish you knew 25 years ago?
Sandy: That you can make a career in retail. I think that's the first thing. I started out as a part-time salesperson in school and I loved it, and I kept thinking, can I make a career out of this? And looking at today, I think that the journey I've taken, although it's had lots of twists and turns, has really helped to culminate to where I am today.
The place that you find comfort and. Make that your career. I think a couple things I think about as I look back on my retail journey that quite a few wise people has shared with me over time is to really be a great listener. Someone once told me, I was really eager to always give the answer first, but listen first to everything someone has to say before you respond.
I think it's so important. Small gestures matter too. The small things, recognizing someone's individual moments. I saying a behavior, something that you were able to catch someone in the moment doing something right and mentioning it is not only important to you and your relationship, but it's also important to the individual.
I really think as a leader of quite a few teams out there, also I think about success through the eyes of our teams. What's always when you walk into a store and just they have the experience right? Is such a testament to the leaders that we have out there, and I think it's our job to recognize what they're doing.
It's so important. And I think the last thing is I've done quite a few things over my career that have been scary and I think I'm not prepared for, but there's no better substitute of getting in there and doing something that makes you uncomfortable. Because that's where your growth comes from. Oh
Tony: my.
That's fabulous. All of it. Everything from Dream and you can make it take risks. Listen attention to details. Great tips out there, Kim. One of the things that's. Fabulous about you is that mix of finance and creativity and things like that. Now, not everybody is born with being able to do left brain and right brain together, but some of this cash can actually be developed.
So what advice would you have to people to get that right blend of the left brain and the right.
Kim: One of the things I always say is preparedness cannot be overstated. And by that I mean doing your homework when you step into an interview or when you're thinking about a job change, really do the research.
When I first was thinking about leaving finance, I made a list of companies that I was either inspired by. Or that I wanted to learn more about and really did my homework, I showed up in front of Mickey Drexler at J Crew, knowing that I did not have the resume that all of the other people had and really thought about, you know, I visited multiple stores.
I'd developed a point of view on what I thought were opportunities in the footwear business. I had my favorite products. I had asked the store advisors, Hey, what's selling here? I was prepared and I can't state enough when I interview people that have come to Warby Parker. If they've done the home trying, they've gone to our stores, they can list out a frame that that drew them, drew their eye.
Those things are big, but it also carries through to how you do your job. I always say to my team, never show up in a meeting if you don't have anything to say. Right. A, a meeting is an active participation, so being an active participant means being an active listener, but always thinking about what's the contribution here.
O one of the things that I love about the Warby environment you've created is we're very curious. We're always thinking about the future. So there's this idea we have to manage the business day-to-day, right? We're looking at inventory terms and costs, but we're also thinking. What is the next evolution?
What's Warby Parker 3.0 and 4.0 and where are we meeting the customer? So I think that's a been a big piece for me. I also do think you have to work for somewhere that you're proud to say you work for them. It's so important, and I have worked many companies that have wonderful reputations, but I have never been more proud to work for Warby Parker.
And I think that do-good element. I didn't know. Important it was until I have it now and it and, and it's something that will forever direct me for the rest of my life. So I think being able to say, I work for Warby Parker and being proud of that, or w whichever, where you land, is really important because it motivates you.
It gets you up in the morning, you understand, you know what your job is and how it contributes to the greater good I would say. And then the last piece, I know this may be overused, but to be curious, if you stop being curious in your role, and you're probably. As effective as you could be, whether it's solving a customer issue, the art and the science piece.
I say to my merchants, I have some that love product and I have some that love data, right? And I say, partner with the other one, right? So have one merchant over here who's studied every color trend known to man, and she's, you know what? Green is the new black and tortoise is out, and we're going in. And then I say, Partner with your friend over here and have them run the data on the sales trends over the last six years, and let's see how we forecast that out.
But finding someone in your own workspace who maybe has a strength that you don't have in figuring out that collaboration, especially in this day and age, is super important. And then you gotta take a risk. Yeah. If something in your gut is telling, you gotta go somewhere different. When I call my father and said, I think I'm gonna leave Blackstone and go work for Todd's.
He was like, what are you talking about? I said, I swear to you, I think this is what I'm meant to do and I'm here now. But it was a really big risk when I was 25 years old and taking a huge pay cut and wondering if this was the right move. But in my heart of hearts, I knew it was because I knew I was far more passionate about this world than the one I was in.
And
Tony: that's so important, isn't it? Especially in this day and age, following your passion, figuring. What you're meant to do as opposed to being driven by what previous generations may have done. But this is, these are just fabulous insights and tips. Hey, Sandy and Kim, thank you so much for joining us today.
Congratulations once again on the 200th store opening of Warby Parker. We're so excited. Thank you, Terry. Hi. I am truly excited for you as well. I wish you all. As you continue on to bigger and greater heights, thank you once again for being with us today.
Kim: Thank you, Tony, and I can't wait to get you in some Warby Parker frames.
That's right. We're here for you.
Tony: Hey, that would be really cool. I look forward to that too. And to all of our listeners out there, thanks once again for being with us. Make sure you subscribe at www.winningretailpodcast.com. And until next time, keep reinventing.
Kim: Thank you again for listening to Winning Retail.
To find more episodes and subscribe to our newsletter, go to winning retail podcast.com.