All retailers talk about being customer-centric, but for Fran Horowitz, chief executive officer of Abercrombie & Fitch Co., it’s easier said than done.
“Everybody says it. We actually do it, and we do it in several different ways,” Horowitz told WWD in an interview. “We spend a tremendous amount of time in our stores. We spend a tremendous amount of time with our customers. We go to Friday night football to see the Hollister kids. We go on weekend trips with the Abercrombie customer and live their lifestyle for three or four days to truly understand what matters to them.”
There’s a lot of testing, both in store and online for customer-specific feedback and an actual playbook for customer-centricity, Horowitz said. The company gathers million of points of direct customer feedback every year through insight labs, the store base, online and focus groups. “Thinking about the customer first, it’s ingrained in our culture,” she said. “I believe it’s a big reason for our success.”
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Since becoming A&F Co.’s CEO in 2017, the 61-year-old Horowitz has led one of the retail industry’s most dramatic and thorough transformations. A&F was once deemed America’s “most hated retail brand” by the American Customer Satisfaction Index, but Horowitz repositioned the business to be more diverse and inclusive in terms of sizing, hiring and the models chosen for advertising and catalogue shoots. The strategy also involved differentiating Abercrombie and Hollister assortments, reducing product redundancies between the two brands, improving product quality, sharpening their target demographics; streamlining and updating the store fleet with smaller and more open footprints, and becoming technology-driven. While Hollister is focused on Gen Z and individuality, A&F zeros in on Millennials who are out of college, starting their careers and really into “the long weekend.” A&F also became an early adopter of social commerce and a key partner with TikTok and Instagram, tapping influencers and social media stars. And plenty of blocking and tackling, for sure.
No Silver Bullets
“What frustrates me sometimes is when people think there’s a silver bullet. There are no silver bullets in this business,” Horowitz said. “This was years and years in the making, and a lot of hard work, sweat and tears, and it started with us inspecting every single function within this company, from sourcing to planning to merchandising to finance. What was our operating model? How is it working? How is it not working, and what does the future look like? And we created a very different operating model here that I’m incredibly proud of, and I’m not going to discuss it any further, because I see it as a competitive advantage making us very successful.”
Horowitz will be presented with the Edward Nardoza Honor for CEO Creative Leadership at the WWD Apparel and Retail CEO Summit on Tuesday, recognizing her success in transforming a floundering mall staple into a relevant and consistently profitable, modernized retailer. Commenting on the recognition, she said: “It’s a lot for me to handle, but I really, really appreciate it. It’s very touching.” She’s not the type to seek the spotlight, or feel comfortable under it.
Horowitz’s first retail experience came during high school, when she worked at the former Country Bumpkins women’s specialty store in Armonk, N.Y. “I was a salesperson on the floor, selling Levi’s and things of that nature.”
She had been following the career of a family friend who went through a retail training program. “I loved that in this training program you were exposed to the buying office, the selling floor, this rotational opportunity,” Horowitz said. “I loved that it was very specific on what you had to accomplish at each level. I really enjoyed hearing all about that, and just knew there was something there for me.”
While in college, she went through a Christmas training program at Bloomingdale’s 59th Street flagship and later a Saks Fifth Avenue merchant training program. She earned her MBA taking night courses at the Gabelli School of Business while in the Saks program. “Honestly, being in this industry for 40 years, I would say Saks and Bloomingdale’s were both very, very competitive places. You always had to sort of watch your back. If you could survive that, and excel at that, you knew there was a future for you.
“I was always interested in fashion,” she said. “The career itself seemed very intriguing.”
She liked that the business was measurable, offered opportunities for career advancement, and that there was some understanding of the time frames involved in ascending the ranks.
At Bloomingdale’s, Horowitz was first a buyer of the Young East Sider contemporary business and later a vice president and divisional merchandise manager. She grew the contemporary department from about $30 million to $100 million in three to four years. “We really made a name for contemporary,” Horowitz said.
“I was at Bloomingdale’s for 13 years, watching Michael Gould lead,” Horowitz recalled, referring to the store’s former chairman and CEO. “He was truly an empathetic leader. People first — that’s Mike. He made sure he connected with people, down to the lower levels. He knew everybody’s name and was very accessible. I learned a lot about how to lead that way. He set a great example for me. He’s still very much in my life today.…I always recommend to young people to find themselves a mentor and someone who can help them think things through.”
Horowitz went on to become brand president at Ann Taylor Loft, executive vice president of women’s merchandising and design at Express, part of the team that took the business public, and she had various roles at Bergdorf Goodman, Bonwit Teller and Saks Fifth Avenue.
The Appeal of Retail
“I love how retail is ever changing. You have to be extremely agile. You have to be open to change. You have to be very, very curious,” Horowitz said.
“I always say, you come with a to-do list and you can promise yourself it’s probably not going to happen that day. You have to be able to flex and move and see what the day brings. With that said, you have to be incredibly organized and forward thinking to make sure that you are staying one step ahead, that you’re listening to the customer, and that you’re really staying on top of the trends coming from everywhere and anywhere. A lot of information is being synthesized, but you’ve got to make sure the team is paying attention to what’s happening out there.”
Horowitz joined Hollister as its brand president in 2014, a time when the company was reeling following sales declines, store closures and the departure of the controversial former CEO Mike Jeffries. Jeffries reinvented the brand and catapulted it into a national retail player and cultural phenomena. But his club-like stores and his inclination toward hypersexualized advertising and elitist imagery depicting svelte, mostly white, and presumably rich young people left the business out of step with many consumers. (Jeffries’ recent arrest on sex trafficking and prostitution charges brought the old Abercrombie into focus and highlighted just how much its image has now changed.)
“The company itself and the brands were definitely in a tough place, seeing double-digit declines,” Horowitz said of when she started. “The quality of the product needed great improvement. Many people said to me, ‘What are you doing? Why are you doing this?’ But what my gut told me, after my experience building brands throughout my career, was that both Hollister and Abercrombie were incredible, iconic brands that had the right to live again.”
Abercrombie Rebuilt
Horowitz was quickly promoted to A&F Co.’s president and chief merchandising officer in 2015, and then rose to CEO in February 2017.
The fourth quarter of 2019 was the “wow” moment for Abercrombie’s adult business, particularly in women’s.
“That’s when we really started to see the brand accelerate, and the turnaround started to be recognized,” Horowitz said. “As we headed into COVID-19, with all the online chatter on all the social platforms, the consumer was really recognizing all of the things we had done. People started to realize this was not the Abercrombie of old, that this was the beginning of the new Abercrombie. It was a 180-degree turn from where the company was before, when it was much more about presentation and what the team before wanted customers to want. We really tuned into the customer and realized what matters to this Abercrombie customer is ‘the long weekend.’ We put together an incredible calendar of what this customer does on a long weekend, whether it’s a bachelor party, a bachelorette party, a wedding or a weekend away with friends and considered how we would be there for them during those periods. That was the light bulb moment, to really start to relate to what was most important to them. That’s how we got into some of new businesses such as the Wedding Shop, a collection of dresses, pantsuits, blazers and button-ups for special occasions such as wedding rehearsal dinners, bachelor and bachelorette parties. That’s also the reasoning behind launching YPD, Abercrombie’s Your Personal Best active line, and Curve Love, the women’s A&F fit that eliminates waist gap and has additional room through the hip and thigh,” Horowitz said.
Hollister presented a different challenge. “Even though we had a lot of work to do, it was very much just product-focused,” in terms of what the team needed to improve. “Once we got the product right, we started to see momentum very early. We went from being this jeans and T-shirt company to truly a lifestyle brand. Permission to do that was granted by our customers. They asked us for [additional] categories and products because they trusted and believed in us.”
Initially, in 2014 when she told people she was joining A&F Co., “They asked me why I was coming here. What was I thinking? But I said we are going to figure this out, and I believed that from the day that I first stepped through the door here,” Horowitz said.
CEO Style
“I’m just very competitive. I like to win. I’m definitely hands on. There’s no ego involved,” Horowitz said, describing her management style. “My team knows I don’t want any surprises. I very much press that upon them. If there are issues or something’s not working, please share it quickly. We’re here to solve it. There’s no finger pointing. The whole point is, if it’s not working, find a solution. Let’s move forward. I’m a very, very approachable leader. That’s one of my superpowers, as I like to say. I walk the campus. I go the campus cafe. I always love chatting with the associates, listening and learning. The day that we sent everybody home during COVID-19 was a very sad day for me. I thrive on the young population we have here.”
One of her mantras is “balance is key,” so she’s instituted a hybrid work model. Mondays and Fridays are “work from anywhere” days and then associates are in the office Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for “team up days.” A&F Co. does have some employees who always work remotely, but the majority of the associate base is on the campus. The company also has “work from anywhere weeks,” mostly around holidays so associates have flexibility to travel to be with family and friends and can work the full week remotely.
“When I drive up Fitch Path every day, it just always makes me smile knowing at the other end, I’m going to see smart, curious and optimistic associates just working hard and making it all happen,” said Horowitz, who lives in New Albany, Ohio, a few miles from the sprawling A&F Co. campus. The campus was built in 2001 and designed by Anderson Architects with common areas, large worktables in open areas to encourage interaction, plenty of sunlight and outdoor areas where employees can hang out and toss a football.
“We have a wonderful cafe. At lunchtime, you see a lot of social activity,” Horowitz said. For many workers at A&F Co., the CEO said: “It’s a good transition as they go from their college years into their young adult life. It’s a beautiful campus, and we are incredibly fortunate to be here.”
A&F Co. also operates campuses in Shanghai and London. “We are a global organization,” said Horowitz, who said she loves to travel, both professionally and personally. She serves on several boards including Conagra Brands Inc., one of North America’s leading branded food companies; Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose, a CEO-led coalition that helps companies transform their social strategy, and Bombas, the apparel company that helps the homeless.
Personal Time
Outside the office, “The most important thing I do in my free time is spend time with my family,” Horowitz said. “I have an incredibly wonderful and supportive husband. I’ve got two grown children who are on their career journeys, with their significant others. The six of us do a lot together. I call us ‘the six pack.’ We love sporting events. We love Aruba. We recently built a house down in Sea Island, Ga., where we’re finding a lot of really nice family time. We’re also skiers. We spent a lot of time out in Deer Valley. But if it’s just myself, or just me and my husband, I spend a lot of time doing yoga, walking and swimming,” Horowitz said. “Those are sort of my passions, to keep my sense of balance and de-stress.”
Balance is apparently something Horowitz has brought to A&F.
