261 – Brendan Sweeney of Cotton On Group – Big Brand, Big Ideas

Australia's largest global retailer Cotton On Group, known for fast-fashion, on embracing ecommerce, sustainability, and the power of connecting with the next generation... Brendan Sweeney, General Manager of Ecommerce for Cotton On Group (an Australian retail chain, known for its fast-fashion clothing for men, women, teenagers and children) joins Pavan Bahl and guest host Salena Knight (retail strategist, and host of the "Bringing Business to Retail" podcast), on location in Sydney, Australia at Online Retailer City and Nora Network, for a conversation presented by Fluent Commerce. In this episode: Cotton On Group's seven retailer brands mainly in fast-fashion, plus apparel and gifting brand, 1400 stores around the world Cotton On Groups' explosive growth in last ten years Prioritizing ecommerce How Cotton On Group only built its first website 5 years ago Over $2B annual revenue, close to 10% from ecommerce Customers are largely millennals A recently launched loyalty program across all seven brands Keeping up with pace of whats happening The value of already having presence and notability of the brands anyway By being privately owned, able to move quickly The customer doesn’t think about channels How much Cotton On Group is thinking about the store of the future Looking at fundamental basics as more important than tech innovation Relying on physical store footfall Integrating cross-brand promotion into existing customer database Having all seven brands on one website, saw uptick in traffic Multi-brand customers quite valuable Subscrition boxes possible? Personalization operations around the world Mobile power to power charities A focus on sustainability and the benefit of customer buy-in, keeping price right, effective sourcing and supply chain management Connecting with incoming generation