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Will things get better after being worse at Lands' End?

Written by George Anderson

Optimism, both inside and outside the company, ran high for Lands' End last year after being spun off from Sears Holdings. But disappointing quarterly results in 2015 have some investors wondering if the once iconic brand can get its mojo back. Lands' End CEO Federica Marchionni is positive it can.

Earlier this month, Lands' End announced that net revenues fell 10 percent during the company's second fiscal quarter. The company's core direct business (online and catalog) saw sales fall 9.5 percent during the period while its retail business declined 12.9 percent. The most recent results followed a first quarter in which net revenues dropped 9.4 percent, direct decreased 8.2 percent, and retail fell 15.5 percent.

Back in June, Ms. Marchionni, who joined Lands' End in February after serving as president of Dolce & Gabbana USA, said the next 12 to 18 months would be "an important transformational period" for the company as it pursued improvements including:

  • Upgrading product design and development;
  • Raising brand awareness;
  • Opening new distribution opportunities;
  • Enhancing its technology platform;
  • Strengthening operations.

Lands' End collection
Photos: Lands' End

On a call with analysts earlier this month, Ms. Marchionni expressed confidence that steps being taken, including the hiring of new designers to work on the company's Spring/Summer 2016 line, would not only find favor with core customers, but also "attract a new audience and expand the Lands' End family."

Ms. Marchionni also spoke about improvements made to the company's e-commerce site such as the addition of express checkout.

"Going forward, we are looking to increase the payment option providing gifting with purchase and develop a mobile application," she said (via SeekingAlpha). "We are looking to build a site architecture, redesign the product page and integrate social media logins onto the website to further drive traffic conversion and ultimately sustained growth."

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