09
Kensie Merchandising
Modernizing a Brand Without Losing Its Customer
The outerwear category was simultaneously Kensie's highest-margin opportunity and its most visibly dated segment. Competitors at the same price point had modernized silhouettes and introduced functional fabrics while Kensie's outerwear remained anchored in aesthetic trends from several seasons prior. The buy plan needed to make that gap visible with sales evidence, not just style judgment.
Conducted category-level sell-through analysis using available retail data, benchmarked against key department store competitors, and built a buy plan for the outerwear category with specific volume recommendations by style, price tier, and fabrication. The proposal balanced modernization with retention — protecting the styles that were still performing for the core customer while introducing new directions for growth.
- Buy plan with specific style recommendations, volume splits, and price tier diversification
- Identified three silhouette opportunities with validated demand and competitive white space
- Outerwear strategy built to serve both the existing core customer and an adjacent growth segment
Loyalty lives in specific product categories, not the whole brand
When you look at the sell-through data, customers don't love brands equally across all categories. They love what the brand does best. The strategic question is: which categories is this brand trusted in, and how do you protect that trust while making room for evolution?