RETAILING
ModCloth Ramping Up to Add Stores
After operating as an online site for women’s indie apparel, ModCloth is gearing up to add bricks to its clicks-based business model.
The San Francisco company announced it has hired Elizabeth Cooksey as ModCloth’s first-ever vice president of stores and retail operations to accelerate its offline strategies this year.
Cooksey has been instrumental as an adviser to ModCloth, which last July launched its “Fit Shop” store prototype near San Francisco’s Union Square. It is open through March 2016.
The pop-up lets customers try on more than 100 styles of clothing in various sizes. Once they have selected something, customers are encouraged to order it online with two-day shipments to their homes. The showroom model lets ModCloth fit twice as many items in the shop as a regular store.
(The company launched its first pop-up shop in the lobby of its downtown Los Angeles office in April 2015.)
Cooksey has worked in store development for Nike, Free People, BHLD, Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters.
In addition to Cooksey, ModCloth has hired two more executives to head up important departments as the company plans to add stores and branch out internationally.
Mary Alderete was named chief marketing officer. She has more than 20 years of experience working with True Religion Brand Jeans, Levi Strauss & Co. and Gap Inc. Based in the company’s San Francisco headquarters, Alderete will lead ModCloth’s marketing and brand creative organizations and report directly to Chief Executive Officer Matthew Kaness, who joined the company last year.
In addition, Mike Janover has joined ModCloth as vice president of marketing. He will oversee all performance marketing for ModCloth, including customer acquisition and retention and promotions. He has worked with Yahoo Inc., CNET, CBS Interactive and Juice Beauty Inc.
ModCloth was founded in 2002 in a college dorm room by high school sweethearts Susan Gregg Koger and Eric Koger. After they graduated from Carnegie Mellon in 2006, they made ModCloth their full-time careers. Now ModCloth has more than 350 employees in offices located in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh.
