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Since 2013, specialty retail distribution has posted double-digit declines year-over-year. The company has completely flipped-flopped its distribution, going from 33.3% direct/66.6% specialty retail distribution in 2010 to 79% direct/21% retail locations in 2019. Yet despite such dramatic growth in its DTC channels, in the past two years those sales have fallen too, down 1% from ’17-’18 and -6.8% from ’18-’19.īut here is the rub. And in that, they are accomplishing their goals, with DTC sales growing from $96.1 million in 2010 (33.3% of total sales) to $328 million in 2019 (78.8% sales).ĭTC sales are attributed to its 99 full-line Vera Bradley stores, 57 factory outlets selling primarily factory-exclusive styles, its full-line website and an online outlet site launched in 2018.

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“The first stage of Vision 20/20 was to restore brand and company health, and we continue to build upon the progress we made in Fiscal 2019. We once again improved the quality of sales in our full-line stores and on by increasing comparable full price selling in these two channels by approximately 20%,” he said in a statement.ĭriving direct-to-consumer sales is a top priority for Wallstrom and his team.

The company, however, enjoyed a first quarter 2020 bump of 5.2%, leading Wallstrom to announce that it is progressing nicely in year two of its three-year Vision 20/20 strategic transformation plan. Sales peaked in 2013 at $541 million and have been on a steady downward trajectory since, dropping to $416 million in 2019. Since going public in 2010–an inauspicious time in retail–Vera Bradley has had a bumpy ride.

In addition to gaining another “connecting brand,” Vera Bradley is also getting digital marketing and social customer engagement expertise in Pura Vida founders Griffin Thall and Paul Goodman, who will remain with the company.īoasting 44 million visits to its websites and roughly 5.5 million active customers on its house list, Vera Bradley could use a boost on social media, where it claims less than 1.9 million Facebook fans, 420,000 Instagram and 80,000 Twitter followers. Both support foundations to give back to various causes, and Pura Vida notably employs more than 650 Third-World artisans to craft its jewelry. Like Vera Bradley, Pura Vida is also a socially-conscious brand. It’s a connecting brand, just like Vera Bradley, so they are similar in that way,” Wallstrom says. “Pura Vida is a brand that customers love. With $68.3 million in sales generated primarily through DTC e-commerce, Pura Vida shares many of the same emotional values as Vera Bradley, defined in the company’s 10K as kindness, ingenuity, thoughtfulness, optimism, tenacity and empathy.

One way the company is pursuing scale is the recent acquisition of 75% of the Pura Vida jewelry company, known for its hand-crafted and highly-collectible line of friendship bracelets. “To build a lifestyle brand, it’s all about filling this emotional space that connects customers.

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The on-going challenge for the company, as Wallstrom sees it, is how to scale the deeply-felt emotional connection with and between customers. “It’s the combination of pattern and ‘tribe’ that is the connective tissue.” “You can tell a person carrying Vera Bradley is going to be generous and warm and someone you’d like to get to know,” Wallstrom continues. A display of handbags in the showroom at the Vera Bradley facility in Fort Wayne, Ind.