The fashion industry stands at the intersection of creativity and commerce, where staying ahead requires more than just a keen eye for style. Amid this whirlwind of change, one name stands out as a beacon of innovation and strategic prowess- Leanne Holmes, the Chief Commercial Officer -STYLI – Landmark Group.
Leanne embarked on her fashion career two decades ago, having graduated from Manchester University with a degree in International Fashion Marketing. From a young age, she harbored a dream of owning her own fashion store, driven by her desire for unique clothing pieces that stood out. Her teenage years were marked by a personal endeavor to create her own clothes, which led her to study clothing design in school and pursue fashion design in college. Eventually, she discovered her passion for the business side of fashion, prompting her to study International Fashion Marketing to gain a comprehensive understanding of the industry.
A Voyage from Fashion Analyst to Industry Trailblazer
Her professional journey began as an allocation analyst at Hugo Boss in London. This role was pivotal, as it not only equipped her with entrepreneurial and transitional skills but also revealed her capabilities. Leanne’s responsibilities included overseeing buying and merchandising for the outlet division, an experience that played a significant role in shaping her career path.
Returning to Manchester, Leanne took on the role of merchandiser at Henleys. Here, she was instrumental in building the merchandising function, handling business reporting, forecasting figures, and leading the implementation of a new system for the team. The autonomy she was given in this position was instrumental, allowing her to learn extensively and contribute significantly. Leanne is deeply grateful to Henleys for providing a clear vision and goals, which were essential not only for the company’s success but also for her personal growth within the role. She looks back on this period with fond memories and appreciation, having had the opportunity to learn from the company and her leaders while being trusted to implement her ideas. This autonomy helped her identify her strengths and weaknesses and understand the environments in which she thrives, reinforcing the importance of clarity in achieving both personal and organizational success.
A defining moment in Leanne’s career was her role as Head of Merchandising at Pretty Little Thing. Her passion for startups became evident as she thrived in environments where she could grasp the broader business vision and understand how various departments are interconnected. During her 18-month tenure, the company grew from 20 to 200 employees, becoming one of the fastest-growing online fashion businesses at the time. This period underscored the significance of hard work, consistency, communication, and teamwork in driving success.
Feeling it was the right moment to explore new horizons, Leanne co-founded I Saw It First. Leading the merchandising, buying, and creative aspects of the company, she embraced the challenges of starting from scratch. This venture provided her with a deeper understanding of business fundamentals and the unique pressures of running her own company. Her prior experience proved invaluable as I Saw It First experienced rapid growth, further fueling her drive and passion for success.
Following this period, Leanne took a year off to reflect, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The shift in consumer behavior and work dynamics, along with a personal reevaluation of her approach, offered her a fresh perspective on customer needs and future directions in her career. This reflective period reignited her enthusiasm for the fashion industry, which she felt was on the cusp of a dynamic revival.
Navigating the Evolving Seas of Merchandising
Leanne Holmes has a rich background in merchandising, a field she has seen evolve significantly over the past 15 years. She notes that many fashion companies have embraced a ‘test and repeat’ model, which, when executed effectively, can enhance sales while reducing inventory risks by focusing on best-selling products. Today, the merchandising role has become highly analytical and data-driven, yet it remains closely connected to the product. Modern merchandisers handle a variety of business aspects, including overall trading strategies, marketing, forecasting targets, and e-commerce merchandising, such as site layout and product positioning, all while continually seeking out new sales opportunities.
Leanne firmly believes that the product should always be at the core of business decisions. Her transition into a commercial strategy role was a natural progression, particularly evident when she co-founded I Saw It First. Her constant pursuit of new challenges and growth, along with the desire to impact the broader business, has driven her success in this field. Leanne has always thrived in roles where she could see immediate results from trading decisions, leveraging her comprehensive trading skills.
Joining a startup, according to Leanne, can be a career risk due to the need for flexibility and the application of transferable skills across various areas. However, it also offers a unique opportunity to discover new abilities and gain a well-rounded understanding of business operations. Since her tenure at Hugo Boss, Leanne has maintained an entrepreneurial mindset, treating each role as if it were her own business. This approach, she believes, fosters passion, motivation, and innovative thinking, qualities essential for success in any business role. She continues to apply this mindset in her work and encourages her teams to do the same, provided the business environment supports it.
Steering STYLI Through Market Shifts
As the Chief Commercial Officer at STYLI, Landmark Group, Leanne Holmes’s primary responsibilities encompass several critical areas. She provides strategic oversight by continuously analyzing current market trends, consumer behavior, and the competitive landscape to identify opportunities for growth. Her role involves developing and implementing strategies to drive sales and revenue growth, ensuring that the brand is effectively positioned in the market through strategic brand positioning and marketing initiatives.
Operationally, Leanne is focused on enhancing supply chain management, aiming to optimize efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and the ability to meet consumer demand. This includes overseeing sourcing, inventory management, and logistics. She also manages financial aspects of the business, including budgeting, forecasting, and financial analysis, to ensure that commercial strategies are financially viable and contribute to the company’s overall profitability.
Leanne faces several primary challenges in her role. Navigating the evolving consumer and market trends is a significant challenge, as the fashion industry is highly susceptible to shifting consumer preferences. To address this, she emphasizes the importance of implementing an agile and data-driven approach to trend forecasting and product development, allowing the brand to adapt quickly to market shifts.
Another challenge is managing supply chain disruptions, which are often caused by geopolitical tensions, pandemics, and environmental factors. Leanne focuses on developing a resilient and flexible supply chain strategy, which includes diversifying suppliers, increasing local sourcing, and investing in technology to enhance visibility and agility.
Intense competition and price pressures are also a concern in the highly competitive fashion retail sector. To counteract this, Leanne is dedicated to building strong brand loyalty through unique value propositions, superior customer experiences, and differentiated product offerings that justify premium pricing.
Crafting Brand Integrity Amidst Market Expansion
Balancing brand integrity with market expansion and trend adaptation requires a strategic approach that prioritizes the brand’s core values while remaining flexible enough to seize new opportunities. Leanne emphasizes the importance of embedding the vision, goals, and targets of the business throughout the entire organization. She underscores that a deep understanding of the brand vision is crucial, particularly in startups where sticking to the brand identity can be challenging. As startups evolve, it is easy to become distracted by varying opinions and directions, but Leanne notes that the most successful companies are those with a strong vision and a clear understanding of their target audience and brand identity.
Leanne believes that listening to and understanding customers through data-driven insights, consumer research, and market analysis is essential. She points out that valuable lessons can be learned from data, which helps in understanding customer preferences and making informed decisions about what to offer more of and what to avoid. A clear interpretation of this data allows for effective response to market needs.
Reflecting on her experience at Pretty Little Thing, Leanne highlights the remarkable success achieved during its fast-paced expansion. Within just 18 months, the company saw a significant boost in sales, expanded its team, implemented the test and repeat model, and integrated multiple systems. Extensive infrastructure development and training were undertaken, all while achieving phenomenal sales growth.
This success, according to Leanne, was driven by a clear vision and well-defined goals that aligned the entire organization. She emphasizes the importance of quickly testing and finding solutions, regular communication, and the motivation that comes from achieving sales targets. These elements, she argues, are essential for the seamless integration and rapid growth of any business or project.
Creating a Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Successfully transforming business processes to align with evolving market demands and operational efficiencies requires a combination of customer-centric strategies, technology adoption, continuous improvement, and cultural change. Leanne Holmes emphasizes that focusing on these areas allows businesses to adapt to change and create a sustainable competitive advantage.
She notes that despite having more data than ever, many companies still struggle to truly understand their customers. Leanne highlights that the sheer volume of data can make it challenging to interpret and prioritize effectively. To overcome this, she stresses the importance of continuously gathering and analyzing customer feedback and market trends to understand evolving needs and preferences. This data should drive decisions across the organization to ensure that all process changes directly benefit the customer.
Leanne advocates for implementing agile methodologies as crucial for flexibility and responsiveness to market changes. However, she acknowledges that larger, more established companies may find this transition challenging due to the difficulty of shifting direction and the time constraints they face.
She advises businesses to ensure that new processes and technologies are scalable to accommodate growth and evolving market demands. Building flexibility into business processes is also essential, allowing for rapid adjustments as market conditions change. This may involve developing adaptive supply chains and flexible workforce management.
Leanne also emphasizes the value of advanced analytics for predicting market trends, customer behavior, and operational challenges. Additionally, she supports rapid prototyping and testing of new processes or products to quickly gather feedback and make necessary adjustments, thereby maintaining agility and responsiveness to market needs.
Lastly, Leanne underscores the importance of effective change management. Creating a culture that embraces change and innovation involves clear communication, training, and support to help employees adapt to new processes and technologies.
Orchestrating Fashion’s Future with Strategic Foresight
Leanne emphasizes the importance of staying attuned to evolving consumer trends and market demands through a combination of research, technology, and strategic adaptation. She highlights that fashion shows and catwalks, though not always attended, can be monitored through trend forecasting sites like WSGN, which offer valuable data and predictions for planning product lines and marketing strategies. Competitor analysis tools, such as Edited, are essential for understanding how competitors are responding to market trends.
Leanne also underscores the significance of social media for real-time conversations about emerging trends and audience insights, while e-commerce analytics tools like Google Analytics help identify shifts in buying patterns and customer segments, aiding in inventory planning, product development, and marketing strategies.
She points out that with the abundance of industry content available, it is easy to become absorbed in daily operations and lose sight of broader trends. Trade shows provide opportunities to engage with industry leaders and gain insights into market dynamics, while broadcasts like Business of Fashion offer valuable perspectives on competitor strategies and market conditions.
Paving Better Paths
Leanne advises aspiring professionals to spend the initial years of their careers immersing themselves in companies that offer extensive learning opportunities about the industry and its various categories. She recommends seeking roles with knowledgeable mentors, embracing diverse tasks, and participating in a range of projects to gain comprehensive experience. Researching and targeting top companies and working alongside leading professionals are crucial steps. For instance, Leanne highlights her own experience at TK Maxx, where a six-week full-time training program provided invaluable insights before starting her role—an opportunity she notes is rare today.
Leanne emphasizes the importance of exploring different types of organizations, from startups to large corporations, to discover the environments where one thrives, whether in structured settings or those offering more autonomy. The right work environment significantly impacts motivation and passion, so she suggests looking for workplaces that foster continuous improvement for both employees and the organization.
Effective communication skills are essential for articulating ideas and points clearly, according to Leanne. She also stresses the significance of passion and drive for the product, noting that understanding and interpreting trends from the runway will become increasingly important as the fashion industry evolves.
Commitment to lifelong learning is crucial, as the fashion industry is constantly changing. Leanne encourages professionals to be open to change, embrace new technologies, and continuously evolve their skills. Creativity and innovation are key, whether in design, marketing, or customer experience, as fashion retail often requires fresh solutions to stay ahead of the competition.
Setting clear, long-term career goals and developing a roadmap to achieve them is another important piece of advice from Leanne. Whether aspiring to be a fashion buyer, designer, retail manager, or entrepreneur, having a structured plan helps maintain focus and motivation.
Leanne also underscores the importance of adaptability and resilience in the fast-paced fashion industry. Being able to navigate challenges, from shifting trends to economic changes, while remaining focused on career goals is vital. Strong communication skills are crucial for collaborating with designers, suppliers, and customers, and networking plays a significant role in building and maintaining professional relationships within the industry.
In addition to aesthetics, Leanne highlights the necessity of strong business acumen, including skills in financial management, budgeting, and sales analysis. As the future of fashion retail becomes increasingly digital, expertise in e-commerce, social media marketing, digital analytics, and online merchandising is essential. Despite the allure of social media success, Leanne reminds aspiring professionals that success in fashion retail requires patience, persistence, and a willingness to work up through the ranks, with each step providing valuable experience and lessons contributing to long-term success.
