Retail is filled with a constant stream of industry jargon, whether it’s a strategic play like “omnichannel” or a C-suite title like “Chief Digital Officer”.

Staying on top of everything can be overwhelming. But if you’re Ujjwal Dhoot, CEO of Allivet, first principles and fundamentals matter more than industry jargon.

Ujjwal has led marketing, digital, and executive teams in retail for 15+ years in a wide range of industry verticals, including apparel, fashion, health, and pet. Prior to his time at Allivet, Ujjwal was CMO at Destination XL Group, where he played a pivotal role in their recent turnaround.

In this episode, Ujjwal talks to Chris about his approach to retail marketing, strategy, and leadership. Topics they cover include:

• How enterprises can operate like startups
• The 80-20 rule of marketing experiments
• Why marketing attribution isn’t really a problem
• How the Chief Digital Officer role will evolve

As you’re planning for 2023 and beyond, Ujjwal’s perspective will help you get back to basics. We were thrilled to have him on the show.

Connect with Ujjwal on Linkedin

Connect with Chris on Twitter and Linkedin

Check out Allivet

About Ujjwal:

Ujjwal is a DTC, eCommerce and Retail expert obsessed with influencing the optimal customer journey and has spent building engaging customer centric organizations and platforms for over a decade. Having successfully compounded eCommerce business trajectories and managed $10’s of millions in annual marketing budgets multiple times, he strives to keep building fast-growing marketing and product driven organizations. From when a customer first experiences a brand to managing and extending lifecycle, he loves to emphasize the need to change and measure customer behaviors to increase customer lifetime value. He has diverse experience in aspects of direct & digital marketing, retail, eCommerce, business development & advanced analytics.

He is currently President and CEO at Allivet, a fast growing and leading pet pharmacy retailer in the US. He was previously Chief Marketing Officer at DXL Group (NASDAQ: DXLG), the leading retailer of men’s Big + Tall apparel in the United States. Prior to that, he was Chief Marketing and Product Officer at Health E-Commerce (FSAStore), a hyper growth eCommerce company that was acquired by Beecken Petty O’Keefe & Company.

Ujjwal has also held marketing leadership roles at Charming Charlie, an omnichannel retailer with over 350 stores, 20x200, an online retailer for limited edition art, and at PetCareRx.com, a fast-growing omni-channel retailer for pet medications. In his many roles, he has managed the entire brand, direct and digital marketing driven P&L’s, along with product, business development and customer insight functions.

Ujjwal completed his MBA in Marketing from Syracuse University in New York, and when he’s not at work, he spends his time exploring the great outdoors with his wife and son.

If you’ve visited any retail or SaaS industry website in the past year, you’ve seen these headlines:

‘X Company lays off 20% of staff’

‘Y Retailer files for bankruptcy’

‘Z Company reports 80% drop in profitability in Q2’

Retail and SaaS are going through financial headwinds in a major market downturn. What can CFOs of these companies do to navigate the current market environment? We brought on a veteran CFO who’s had experience in both industries to share his perspective: Bryan Wolff.

Bryan Wolff is the CFO of AllVoices, an employee communications platform. He was also CFO of apparel retailer Bonobos and grocery retailer Thrive Market. He’s led finance teams of all sizes across a variety of business models, and we were lucky to get him on the show.

In this conversation, Bryan and Chris discuss a range of finance-related topics, including:

• The financial tools retailers should leverage in a downturn
• Retail vs. SaaS financial models
• Why retailers should be constantly scenario planning
• Bryan’s concept of “exhaust” in retail businesses
• One killer strategy for retailers to lower their customer acquisition cost (CAC)

Bryan goes incredibly deep into the financial mechanics businesses need to survive right now. We hope you enjoy this episode.

Connect with Bryan on Linkedin

Connect with Chris on Twitter and Linkedin

Check out AllVoices

About Bryan:

Bryan has worked as a technology investor and executive for over 15 years; having held senior positions at numerous Venture Capital-backed start-ups and other Institutional Investment firms. He is currently the CFO at AllVoices, a Los Angeles-based employee communications platform. Recently Bryan was a Managing Director at Anthos Capital Management, a Santa Monica-based private equity firm, where he had worked from 2017 to 2020. Prior to that, Bryan was the CFO of Bonobos, Inc. (acquired by Wal-Mart), DogVacay (acquired by Rover, Inc.) and Thrive Market, all privately held companies. Bryan has sat on numerous boards over his career, both public and private. Bryan holds an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and a BSE in Computer Science from Princeton University. He and his wife, Melanie, live in Santa Monica and have 3 young children.

In March 2020, Harry Rosen closed their 17 stores in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Demand also dried up for their products as customers stopped buying luxury clothing and switched to athleisure as they worked from home.

Harry Rosen President & COO Ian Rosen turned what would have been a major setback for the business into a golden opportunity. He accelerated his team’s digital transformation plans to deliver a best-in-class online experience unique to Harry Rosen on their website. He also pursued adjacent product category opportunities to expand the Harry Rosen brand and strengthen their relationship with their loyal customers.

In this episode of Legends of Retail, Ian talks to Chris about how he led the company through this crucible moment for the business. Topics they cover include:

• How they replatformed their online store
• The features they prioritized during their replatform and why
• How they launched a grooming product category with dropship
• How Ian decides to promote internally vs. hire externally

If you’re interested in a retailer that’s at the forefront of luxury and apparel retail, this episode is for you!

Connect with Ian on Linkedin

Connect with Chris on Twitter and Linkedin

Check out Harry Rosen

About Ian:

Ian Rosen is the President & Chief Operating Officer at Harry Rosen, where he is responsible for driving profitable growth across each of the company’s three banners: Harry Rosen, FinalCut and The Outlet by Harry Rosen. In his role, Ian works with Executives across Sales Management, Merchandising, Marketing, Digital and IT functions to ensure operations are aligned towards delivering on the Harry Rosen brand promise to provide exceptional service to clients throughout every touchpoint. Since joining Harry Rosen in 2018, Ian has led the company’s transformation to extend relationships with customers onto digital channels and enhance the shopping experience with technology (both online and in-store). Ian marks the third generation of Rosen’s that have joined the company founded by his Grandfather. Prior to joining Harry Rosen, Ian was a Management Consultant at Bain & Company in Chicago where he focused on Strategy, Retail and Digital projects. Ian holds both an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and an HBA from Ivey Business School.

About Convictional:
Convictional helps retailers add new brands and categories to their assortments, without any inventory risk. Learn more at convictional.com.