(Toronto) As customers flocked to stores across the country for Black Friday, Carrie Baker was busy greeting them and registering their purchases at the Canada Goose Holdings store on Sainte-Catherine Street West, in Montreal.
The luxury clothing company’s president was one of 15 Canada Goose executives who gave up their desks to take a sales associate role.
CEO Dani Reiss visited Yorkdale Mall in Toronto, while others visited stores in Los Angeles, London, Zurich, Shanghai and Tokyo.
Their goal was to spend the day observing customers and employees before coming together with ideas for how the Toronto company, founded in 1957, can increase sales, customers and productivity.
“I think it’s very important that we learn on the ground [and take] every opportunity to improve, to focus on what really works, to see things from those eyes rather than staying behind a desk and see a report,” Baker said in an interview halfway through her shift.
“No report can replace the “moment of truth” you feel when seeing things with your own eyes. »
Although Canada Goose executives regularly visit the brand’s stores and warehouses, this time was different. The visit was timed for Black Friday — a highlight of the retail calendar that drew queues of potential customers to Montreal’s Canada Goose store for much of the day — and took place then that the manufacturer of luxury parkas is going through a year of ups and downs.
An unusually warm fall across most of Canada and high inflation have caused many consumers to postpone major purchases for winter, such as Canada Goose clothing suitable for cold weather conditions.
Relations between Canada — the company’s home country — and China — where the company has focused its expansion efforts over the past decade — have simultaneously deteriorated.
Warning investors that it was facing “increasingly challenging global macroeconomic and geopolitical environments that have impacted consumers’ decision-making and prioritization of spending,” Canada Goose announced in November that it would reduce its financial forecasts for the current financial year.
During Ms. Baker’s Black Friday visit, the temperature in Montreal dropped to -8°C, warming shoppers to the idea of spending on winter clothing.
“This is a good time to confirm that they should buy something that will keep them warm,” Baker said.
She helped a family going on a cruise to Alaska find coats and test them in the cold room, a -25°C space that Canada Goose keeps in the Montreal store so customers can test its clothes in the cold.
“That’s one of the confirmations or directions I got today: the important role our walk-in cooler plays in the experience and having customers walk away knowing they bought the right coat , however they are going to use it,” she said.
Baker also found areas where Canada Goose “has work to do.”
For example, staff refer to clothing as having a “skinny,” “classic,” or “oversized” fit.
“If people choose for themselves, they might not understand the nuance of different cuts in different styles, so that’s something I’m refining,” Baker said.
“Often people think of luxury and view [the category] as cold, austere or a little stuck,” the president observed.
But she found that the store’s regular customers shrugged this off and formed good relationships with some of the staff.
“When people come in here, they identify themselves by saying, ‘Oh, I’m Jessie’s customer, oh, I’m Heidi’s customer,'” Baker said.
She and the other executives plan to come together to share stories like this and discuss solutions to common problems. They can be as simple as a change to the presentation of a store or as ambitious as a complete overhaul of its design, the launch of new technology or modification of products.
“Longer-term solutions may take a little longer, but I’m sure there will be things we can implement immediately,” Baker said.
She said she looks forward to hearing about the experiences of other leaders.
Some had already exchanged information during breaks, but most of their contact was about a “little healthy competition” around who would sell the most that day.
“We’ll have to wait for the store managers’ report at the end of the day to know who will win, but I think I have a good chance from what I’ve heard,” Ms Baker concluded.
