Modcloth hires retail execs to take business offline

By

Cassidy Mantor

Published
Feb 29, 2016

Ecommerce retailer Modcloth is making large steps in the direction of retail expansion, recently hiring new execs.

The company’s first brick-and-mortar shop hit San Francisco’s Union Square in August 2015. At that time, newly hired CEO Matt Kaness said, “It’s an incubator, so to speak, of what we think the future of Modcloth stores will be.” The shop was a fit shop, meaning that customers could come in and try on styles before they bought online.

As the company continues to expand retail, executives have been hired to fill existing as well as newly created positions.

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Elizabeth Cooksey has been hired on as VP of Stores and Retail Operations. This is a new position for the company. Her role will be  to “accelerate ModCloth’s offline strategy in 2016.” She was the lead behind the SF fit shop, and has held roles in retail development at Nike, Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters, where Kaness worked before joining Modcloth.

Also new to Modcloth is Mary Alderete, who will come on as the Chief Marketing Officer. Previously, Alderete held the CMO position at True Religion Jeans, and has worked for Levi’s and Gap, Inc.

Alderete and Cooksey join Lizz Wasserman who is the company’s first Fashion Director. She has been in place for several months and also spent time at Urban and Anthropologie.

Modcloth was founded as an ecommerce company, however its sales began dipping in 2014. When Katness was hired on in January 2015, his stated vision included expanding the company internationally, as well as expanding product lines. Retail expansion was the way he felt Modcoth could “expand the size of [their] community” and make it more shoppable.