CADS 4920

Apparel Merchandising Internship Portfolio

Chandler Brun
 Table of Contents

Company DescriptionPage 1

Description of Target CustomerPage 2

Summary of Key SystemsPage 3

Action Shots..Pages 4-8

Daily Anecdotal Journal..Pages 9-24

Interviews..Page 25-34

Interviews SummaryPage 35

Store/Firm ProjectPages 36-38

Self-Evaluation...Page 39

Program Analysis...Page 40

Evaluation by On-Site SupervisorPages 41-42

Thank You NotesPages 43-44

Extra Credit.Page 45

 L.K. Bennett Description

L.K. Bennett is a luxury fashion brand that was founded in London in 1990 by Linda

Bennett as a concept shoe brand. Initially what made the brand famous was the modern kitten

heel. The Brand Statement is The British accessible luxury brand with vibrant femininity at its

heart. In 1998, a womenswear collection was introduced. Followed later by handbags,

accessories, and jewelry. In 2006, the website was launched overseas in the United Kingdom to

open the eCommerce industry. In February 2013, the United States eCommerce site was

launched. The first United States store opened in 2010, and the flagship location on Madison

Avenue opened in 2015. There are now 12 stores and one outlet store in the United States. There

are now close to 100 employees at L.K. Bennett North America. L.K. Bennett is now available in

standalone stores across the United States, Europe, the Middle East, online, and in select

department stores worldwide.

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 Description of Target Customer

L.K. Bennett is still relatively small in the United States; therefore, growth happens every

day. The target customer has always been a female ages 35-50. The clothing and shoes are at a

higher price point, so younger customers cant necessarily afford it yet. Its meant for a work

conscious woman who is focused on their career, but also features more casual wear for the

weekends. Many of the email promotions or collections on their website are tailored to the work

day, pieces you can wear to work and on the weekends, and events. L.K. Bennett as a brand

wants to expand into a younger market and are using tactics such as social media and blogger

promotion to attract younger consumers. Even with these efforts, it remains the conservative and

well-structured brand for women 35-50.

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 Summary of Key Systems

Each store uses the same POS system that can be accessed by the office. The IT manager

can access each store locations computer. The customer service department also uses a very

similar POS system if orders are placed over the phone. Each store must maintain the visual

merchandising guidelines set in place by the visual manager. The stores are held accountable by

the visual manager each time a new drop is delivered. All back stock is organized the same way

at each store. Each store must also maintain housekeeping procedures, dress code, and

impeccable customer service. Every sales associate, manager, and office employee must go

through the same training, route to success, and new hire process.

3
 10 Action Shots on the Job

First day at L.K. Bennett!

Working at my desk on the many

assignments I got from different
employees around the office. Many
of the assignments were research
based.

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 This is a picture of Nicole, L.K.
Bennetts wholesale assistant and I
during market. We were showing
the Winter 2017 collection to
countless accounts.

During market, I had to place all the

shoes back after each appointment.
Each account would pull the shoes
they wanted to get information and
pricing on and after Nicole noted
those I placed them back where
they were supposed to go.

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 During market, I had to place all the
ready to wear back after each
appointment. Each account would
pull the clothes they wanted to get
information and pricing on and after
Nicole noted those I placed them
back where they were supposed to
go.

In this picture, I am going through

the damages sent from stores all
over the country. We had to inspect
each damage and make sure a
damage slip was accurate for the
damage. These will go into the
sample sale if they arent too
damaged.

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 We pushed a major marketing
campaign while I was there. We got
20,000 postcards printed and had to
separate them into bundles of 50.
Once they were separated we
designated them into zip codes, then
we took each zip code bundle to the
post office and they were sent out to
every resident and office in that zip
code.

In this photo, I am organizing all

the shoe samples from autumn 2017
in the showroom. I had to log them
and get them organized for all the
New York employees to shop it
before the actual sample sale began.

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 This is another photo of me
organizing all the shoe samples
from autumn 2017 in the
showroom. I had to log them and
get them organized for all the New
York employees to shop it before
the actual sample sale began.

In this photo, I am organizing the

front sample closets. These closets
had Autumn 2017 samples in them.
I logged them and organized them
by delivery for the sample sale.

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 Daily Anecdotal Journal

Week 1
1/9/17: Monday

First day at LK Bennett! It was a whirlwind of a day. I reported to 595 Madison Ave. 13th Floor
at 9:30 AM to begin my day. It started with a tour of the office where I met all the corporate
staff. After the tour and meeting everyone I got settled into my desk and Nicole, the wholesale
assistant came to give me my first assignment. The wholesale director just left so Nicole still has
the same position but handles most of the wholesale herself. She had me research the locations of
LK Bennetts top competitors to see where knew stores could be opened and wholesale
opportunities they could take advantage of. I started with the locations of the competitors and
evaluated what large cities LK Bennett didnt have a presence in that their competitors did. After
that I researched the different department stores and specialty stores that their competitors were
in. This took a lot of research and a lot of time. By the end of the day I reported back to Nicole
who said we would consider some of the stores and locations I found. I knew that LK Bennett
was a UK based company but I learned today that they just penetrated the US market 6 years
ago. Therefore, they are fairly new and still trying to grow, which makes this kind of information
crucial. Overall it was a very good first day and Im looking forward to tomorrow!

1/10/17: Tuesday

I came in today and Sam, the events coordinator gave me my next assignment. She oversees
coming up with events for all the stores. Since most of the LK Bennett stores are in malls it is
difficult to attract customers. Most US customers still dont know about LK Bennett and usually
when a customer goes to a mall they go in for a particular store and not to browse. Therefore,
store events are used to attract customers who wouldnt normally come in. She told me about the
January storewide event that is already in full swing, so we just bounced some ideas around
about that. My assignment was focused on the February storewide event. Sam wants each store
to team up with a restaurant in that area and have joint coupons, basically a cross promotional
event. My assignment was to research if other stores have done this same marketing technique. I
did in depth research just because I couldnt find any off the basic Google search. I found a
couple, but they werent womens clothing stores. I reported back to Sam at the end of the day
and we brainstormed more for the event.

1/11/17: Wednesday

Today I began my day working on gift with purchases for each of the stores. UK sent over 200
compact mirrors to the office so I separated them equally amongst all the stores. Made an Excel
sheet for the stores to keep track of which customer and transaction number gets a mirror. Then I
packaged them up and had them ready to be sent out. After that I went to some of our
competitors stores along Madison Avenue to take pictures of their windows and report back on
what new things they were doing inside their stores. After I did that I went to run some errands
for some things the store needed. The rest of the afternoon I worked on researching some more
wholesale opportunities that LK Bennett could act on. I found a couple more and there are some
accounts they want to invite to market at the end of the month so I felt very accomplished!

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1/12/17: Thursday

I had the day off today because I attended the Hearst Institute and YMA FSF Scholarship Gala.
The morning began with various speakers from throughout the industry who gave presentations
on the gala that night and what to expect, some financial terms that young people may not know,
and finally a panel of recruiters who gave us the ins and outs of applying for a job, interviewing,
and how to accept or deny the offer. It was great information and I benefited from listening to
them and what they were saying. Later that afternoon we gathered again to run through the gala
and get some last-minute tips. After that we attended a cocktail hour with all the board of
directors of YMA FSF. A lot of important people who are very influential in the fashion world.
A little intimidating but after talking to the first one it wasnt too bad. After mingling for a while
we took our seats and the gala began. It was amazing to see so many influential people and have
them applauding us for our academic achievements. Overall it was an amazing day!

1/13/17: Friday

The day began at the internship fair put on by YMA FSF. It was a very good job fair and I got to
talk to a lot of great people, recruiters, and companies. After that, I walked to work. I started
working on a press book that will be displayed in the outlet stores. Basically, I went through and
found pictures of celebrities and any pictures in the press wearing LK Bennett spring summer
2016 because that is what will be in outlets this spring. It gives customers the opportunity to look
at the items on even though the merchandise is from a season ago. After I did that I dropped all
the images into the template that we use for all the press books, then printed them out, put them
in binders, and got it ready to send to the outlets. After I completed that I went onto my next
task. Vogue is doing a Made in the UK spread in the February issue so they asked for some
pieces back in December. Yesterday they got back from the shoot and I went through to make
sure we got all the right pieces back, then messenger them back to the store. There was a staff
meeting at the end of the day where we went over what happened that week and went over stuff
for next week. Next week were focusing on the wholesale accounts and finding contact
information for them.

Week 2
1/16/17: Monday

Another packed day! I began by researching Valentines Day promotions that our competitors
have implemented so far. After that I sat down with our President Tony and discussed my next
assignment. Hes pushing wholesale right now so he gave me access to the finances from last
year and this year so far by city and state in ecommerce. My task is to figure out what locations
are booming in ecommerce and see what wholesale opportunities are there. Its going to take
some time so he said I could have the rest of the week while he travels to London. After I got
started on that I helped package the gifts with purchase for the January event this week. They
also want to get the store managers something nice for their semiannual managers meeting in
March so I began researching some products that could be personalized with LK Bennetts logo
that the managers would like. Towards the end of the day I picked up with the wholesale
assignment before I left for the day! Packed day but it was great learning!

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1/17/17: Tuesday

I started my day with an assignment from the ecommerce manager on claiming LK Bennett as
our business on Yelp and linking all our locations. Since Yelp must process the business claim
requests it will be a continuous project throughout the week. After that I helped Nicole the
wholesale assistant clear out the samples in the showroom to make room for the new ones
coming in sometime this week. There are several sample closets where all the samples are stored
until the sample sale which will be sometime in March. After I helped Nicole with that I worked
on the wholesale assignment Tony gave me. After lunch, I put together the February Look Pack
for our launch in February. After that I helped pack up the rest of the gifts with purchase for the
all store event on Thursday.

1/18/17: Wednesday

Today was another jam-packed day! I started working on the wholesale assignment Tony gave
me. Then I started working on our Yelp. Since Yelp has a lot of processing time, I worked on
and off on those two projects. I also assisted Sam with figuring out how much stock we had of
four specific dresses that the NFL female commentators for the Super Bowl wanted to try on.
After lunch, I went with Sam to the two stores in Columbus Circle and at the World Trade
Center to drop off the gifts with purchase for the event tomorrow night and various things from
the office that also needed to be dropped off. I met the store managers and got to look around the
store and in the back to get acclimated to the area. By the time, we traveled to each store and
dropped off all the stuff and had a tour by the time we left the World Trade Center store it was
already 5:00! The day sped by and it was nice to be out of the office and see the stores.

1/19/17: Thursday

Today I started by working on a project for the Director of Ecommerce. She needed to figure out
how many of the various box sizes we needed to ship our online merchandise in. So, I went
through each selling week by department and figured out how many units we sold in each
classification last year. This way we will have a rough estimate of how many units we had to
ship out from the warehouse. On top of looking at each classification I also looked at the coats,
ankle boots, and knee boots sub-classifications because those three items would require a large
box, unlike the other items. It was a very interesting project to work on and the Excel sheets were
so detailed, so it was beneficial to see what an actual selling sheet looks like. After that I worked
on the wholesale project a little more until mid-afternoon. After that I went with Sam to the
Madison Ave. store to deliver the gifts with purchase for the event that night and we picked up
the dresses we needed to ship to the NFL commentators. After that we came back to the office
and it was already 5:00 so I packed up my stuff and headed out for the day. I love that every day
is different here and Im getting to work with each department.

1/20/17: Friday

I cant believe this was the end of my second week! Today I worked on finishing up the
wholesale project Tony gave me, the Yelp, and we ran a quick errand to the Madison store after

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lunch. I needed a day to sit because Id been walking around so much the two days before. The
ecommerce director also had me do a Google search of each store to make sure that all the store
information was correct, and surprisingly there were some errors! The day went by fast but Im
glad I have a good document to present to Tony when he gets back on Monday.

Week 3
1/23/17: Monday

I began my day with putting the final touches on my wholesale assignment from Tony. After
lunch, I printed it out and presented my findings to Tony. After that I began to work on my
project proposal that is due next Monday. Since I have been assigned to work on our Yelp profile
I decided to make that my project proposal because it will be a lot of work and a great
opportunity for me to learn. After I worked on that for a while the new samples arrived from the
UK! So, for the rest of the day I started unpacking the samples and checked them off to make
sure we got them all and everything was accounted for.

1/24/17: Tuesday

Nicole and I were in the showroom all day today preparing for market next week! We finished
up unboxing all the clothing samples. Everything was accounted for so that was good! These
samples are for Winter 2017 with a drop date of the end of August through the end of October.
After we finished unboxing, we separated them by drop date, September, which was a huge drop,
October, and Fashion Week. Once they were separated by drop we started organizing them by
color story to make them look cohesive and flow.

1/25/17: Wednesday

Today we focused on unpacking shoes and handbags. We checked them off the lists to make sure
we received all of them. After that we placed them in the showroom and made sure they were
separated by color story and drop date. After we did that we steamed the rest of the ready to wear
and notified our visual merchandising director to come through the showroom and correct any of
our merchandising. I also got to see the wholesale binders that lists every piece in the collection,
fabric swatches, and color samples so accounts can look at it on paper if they want to. I learned
that some accounts simply order from the wholesale binder without even trying anything on and
I thought that was very interesting from the perspective of the buyer. Were ahead of schedule
with market starting on Tuesday so tomorrow Ill get to assist some other people in the office,
especially our ecommerce department since the customer service specialist is out of town.

1/26/17: Thursday

This morning I helped with the ecommerce team! The ecommerce assistant was going to update
our Pinterest page today but since she had to help with customer service I updated the Pinterest!
It was very cool because they let me add whatever pins I thought would do well. I looked at a lot
of our competitors to see what kind of boards they had. A company doesn't want to have strictly
all product pictures, there should be a couple lifestyle ones too. I did that until around lunchtime,
then after lunch I went through all the line sheets the UK sent us to make sure we had everything

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on them. We were missing a couple of items so Nicole had to email the UK with the items
missing in hopes wed get them by Monday to steam and put out by market on Tuesday. After
that we headed to the store on Madison to drop some stuff off and pick up a pair of shoes for me
to wear next week. Since I will be assisting a lot with market I needed to at least be in a pair of
LK Bennett shoes. After that we headed back to the office and I worked on the Pinterest a little
more then headed out for the day!

1/27/17: Friday

I started my day off working on calling the wholesale companies I researched to get the
information of their buyers. After that I assisted the visual merchandiser dress the mannequins in
the showroom and rearrange a couple of the samples to her specifications. After that I worked on
our Yelp account. After lunch or ecommerce coordinator gave me an assignment to asses our
online inventory. Every week the ecommerce department goes through all our inventory on the
website and reports what has sold out. Since there is so much merchandise it took me the whole
afternoon. I can't believe week three is already over!

Week 4

1/30/17: Monday

I started the day finishing up the inventory project I started last Friday. There is so much
merchandise and it turns over quickly so it is important to keep track of it weekly. After I
finished that I greeted an appointment and notified or president, our merchandise manager, and
our ecommerce director. They needed my computer for the presentation so I worked on drafting
my interview questions and who I wanted to interview. After the meeting, Nicole and I priced all
the samples which went well into the afternoon.

1/31/17: Tuesday

I got to the office an hour early to prepare for the first appointment at 8:30. We had five
appointments today including our Nordstrom and Zappos account which was cool to sit in on.
Some of our smaller accounts were Yarids, Halsbrook, Bishop, and Town Shoes. I greeted them
at the door, told them where to go, offered them refreshments, and notified our president and
merchandise manager that the appointment was there. I got to sit in on all of them. Obviously,
Zappos and Nordstrom had their own system when it comes to a buy, but also getting to see how
the other smaller businesses ran their buys was interesting too. I learned a lot about the collection
from Kristy, or merchandise manager who could attend the product meetings in the UK and
know all the samples inside out, what was changing, and the different attributes of each piece.
Our appointments were pretty footwear heavy today, there was only one ready to wear
appointment. I liked the footwear appointments a lot better because the model doesnt take as
long to change and its much easier to handle a shoe rather than a garment. It was a long day,
with our last appointment ending around 6:00, but I learned so much today that is invaluable.
Can't wait for tomorrow!

2/1/17: Wednesday

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Another packed day of market! Im learning about the merchandise more and more that I can
make little comments to buyers about the fabrication and differences that the actual product will
have as compared to the sample. We had one ready to wear appointment and four footwear
appointments. Those included Buckles, Julian Gold, The September, Emmas, and B Barnett. I
love getting to listen in on how a buyer does their buy and how the seller goes about trying to sell
the product. The market now is so buyer heavy. It used to be that the seller had a lot of control
telling them what all they needed for their customer and the buyer would listen to their advice.
But now that the buyers know exactly who their customer is and what trend their specific store is
going for it is very buyer focused. I found that extremely interesting. I always thought I wanted
to be a seller because Im great at talking to people and my personality leans more towards that.
However, after these last two days I think I would enjoy the buyer position better because there
is more control.

2/2/17: Thursday

Today our appointments included Walin & Wolff, Von Maur, Balliets, and Embellish and Willa.
It was a very packed day of appointments. I could give insight today to the accounts because I
felt like I knew the product. It was very reassuring when our wholesale assistant said that I was
doing a good job or the account said that I was doing a good job for an intern as well. We ended
appointments around 3:00 so for the rest of the day I just continued to work on the Yelp and
submit businesses, add photos, and make sure the correct information is on there. Our
ecommerce director also had me compile all our reviews thus far from our locations and do some
competitive research to see what language is used on publicly commented reviews from the
company. I couldnt find any examples so I dont think businesses respond publicly. I think they
are mostly responded to privately if responded to at all.

2/3/17: Friday

Last day of market! It flew by. Today I got to the office super early for our ShopBop
appointment at 8. Then we had Saks footwear and ready to wear back to back followed by
Amazon. After that we packaged up everything that Nordstrom had detailed and sent it to them
for their style out. Basically, they take the samples and piece them together with other styles
from other brands they bought and style them together to make it look cohesive. After I finished
that I continued to work on the Yelp and try and move more locations over to be searched. I also
tried to brainstorm of ways that we could get more reviews on the Yelp page. Its difficult to
generate reviews other than asking clients directly. So, one of my ideas was to ask the clients that
shop often and are loyal to the brand to leave a review on Yelp to attract other clients and
business.

Week 5

2/6/17: Monday

I helped Nicole put the showroom back together after the whirlwind of market week, but other
than that I couldnt help her out all that much because shes now just waiting for orders to come

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through. I worked on the Yelp for most the day. A lot of locations rolled onto Yelp over the
weekend so I claimed them with the LK Bennett business account and added business photos and
business information. After I called the stores on the east coast with the confirmation codes to be
claimed I went with Sam to the printing store to pick up some incentives for the sales associates
in each store. When I got back the stores on the west coast had opened so I called them to get
them claimed on Yelp. After that I helped Susanna, the HR manager, put together the new hire
packets now that the folders had come in. I placed an LK Bennett label on each folder and the
new hire paperwork I had printed out already. I interviewed Sam today as well and learning more
about her position was very interesting. That took me to the end of the day, so I packed up and
called it a night!

2/7/17: Tuesday

A couple more locations rolled onto Yelp so I updated all their business information and store
photos. I went to the Madison store with Nicole to drop off some merchandise we borrowed for
market, some of our core merchandise that we didnt have samples of. After lunch, I interviewed
Nicole then worked on an ecommerce project. The UK recently changed their return policy so
we are considering changing ours. Many customers also call our customer service line with
questions about warranty and repairing damages. We dont have any policies in place to cover
those types of questions. Therefore, I did some competitive research to see what language other
companies use and what their policies are. After I finished that I worked on putting Nicole and
Sam's interviews into a written paragraph form rather than bullet points. After I finished that it
was time to go so I packed up for the day!

2/8/17: Wednesday

I started my day adding more brands to the competitive research I did yesterday on damage
repairs and return policies. I researched multiple more companies and sent that over to our
ecommerce department. I also finished putting all our store locations on Yelp! It took a lot of
time but it is finally done and they are all consistent. I added campaign pictures to each page as
well from the Spring 2017 collection. After I finished that I worked on a little wholesale
assignment. Zappos wanted to know how much of our core product they ordered at the last
market to make sure they would have enough since they wouldnt be buying again until June. I
went through their order confirmation from last market for Summer 2017 to see how many units
they bought of what styles and colors. Then from there I looked at what they were looking to buy
this market and compiled those together to give them how many units they would have in stock.
Itll be a conversation between him and Nicole to figure out if he wants to order more units of
the core and less of the fashion or vice versa.

2/9/17: Thursday

Office closed due to snow.

2/10/17: Friday

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I began today working with our buyer Hope. She just started last week but she needs help with
some things since shell have to make the buy for our retail stores soon. She showed me our
weekly selling reports and how they are organized. Our planner Kristy creates these. They have
the selling by season, by store, by category, by length of time in store, etc. Its a very detailed
spreadsheet. One of things Hope does at the beginning of each week that she wants my help with
is look at the best sellers from the previous week and making a visual representation of that to
send to the stores and to the UK, since seeing the images and figures is easier separated from that
large spreadsheet. She had me practice with last weeks numbers to get a handle on what shell
want every Monday. So, I took the top 10 best sellers and put them in a PowerPoint with the
image of the item, name of the item, retail price, weekly volume sold in units and in dollars, and
the season to date sales in units and dollars. Once I got a layout she liked we decided thats the
template Ill use every Monday. That assignment took me well into the afternoon so after that I
helped Sam out with motivating stores to pack up their sale merchandise to move it out of stores
to make room for the fashion week drop which should be arriving in stores next week. Can't
believe my internship is halfway over!

Week 6

2/13/17: Monday

I started the day off working with Hope our new buyer. I went into her and Kristys office and
Kristy showed me how she makes the weekly selling reports each Monday. It looks like so much
but she has it down so she can get it done in less than 10 minutes. She showed me how to create
a Pivot table, which I kind of knew how to do from my statistics class at Auburn. Once we
finished walking through that she showed me the sell thru report she updates every Monday as
well. It shows the amount of sell through that week and the amount of sell through that has taken
place this fiscal year. Kristy has been the planner for 5 years so she knows what works best for
her and what information everyone needs. After that I made the best sellers PowerPoint that I
practiced last Friday but with this weeks information. I separated them by category, clothing,
shoes, bags, etc. which took me well into the afternoon. After I finished that Hope asked me to
create a couple of pages she can take with her when she goes to visit the Madison Avenue store
and the World Trade Center store this week. I put in each stores selling by season, by
department, their best sellers, and the week 28 sales and KPI report. I printed those out for her.
That brought me to the end of the day!

2/14/17: Tuesday

I began my day sitting down with Hope and her explaining my next project. The UK send us
matrixes for ready to wear, footwear, and accessories for every market. Hope and Kristy walked
through and selected what they were buying for the US stores and our website. The matrix is a
very large document that has them organized by delivery, color story or collection, and heel
heights. What she wanted me to do what condense it an organize it so she could have it on just
one sheet. So, that means deleting the merchandise she didnt buy for our stores and reorganizing
it so isnt so spread out. Since the winter 2017 buy just happened she wanted me to combine the
Autumn buy and the Winter buy on the same document with the delivery dates specified. This
will most likely take me a couple days but she said she needed it by next week and if other

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people needed me to do things I could help them out and then just get back to this assignment
afterwards. Another project I had today was emailing the accounts who havent submitted their
orders yet. It was only three accounts but orders were due last Wednesday so they need to be in
so Nicole can get that over to the UK. Nicola, our ecommerce director also wanted me to add to
the competitive research I did last week about return policies. She wanted me to consider other
companys policies on price adjustment. After I finished that it was time to pack up for the night.

2/15/17: Wednesday

I began my day working on Hopes project for me. I got all the merchandise into one document, I
just need to work on formatting it, which Ill do tomorrow. After lunch, I logged all the winter
samples in our sample tracker Excel sheet. This took some time since there are quite a few
samples. After I finished ready to wear I logged all the shoes. This afternoon the shoes that
Nordstrom ordered from this past market that we sent to them for their style out were shipped
back to us. I unpacked the box, made sure they were all accounted for and placed them back on
display in the showroom and logged them into the tracker sheet. This took me close to the end of
the day so I decided to tackle the Autumn samples tomorrow. For the rest of the time I had I just
worked on my internship project!

2/16/17: Thursday

I started my day finishing up the combined autumn winter matrix for Hope our buyer. She also
showed me the document they report all the numbers on. Some information like pricing or heel
height was left off the main matrix so I had to access this large assortment file for autumn and
winter to find that information. The core collection was a bit difficult because we dont order the
core styles every market so some were on order already from the market before or were already
on hand in the warehouse. It was difficult because those numbers change all the time so its hard
to keep track of it on an excel file. After I finished that I sent it to Hope. After lunch, I
interviewed Mallory our visual manager. I was excited to talk to her because its a very creative
position and since there isnt a design team over here I wanted insight into a creative process.
After that interview, I went into the sample closet where the autumn samples were and started
tracking those as well since the spreadsheet from yesterday is for Autumn and Winter 2017. As I
started tracking the shoes Nicole told me that an account who couldnt come to market wanted to
see pictures of every ready to wear item front and back. So, I paused working on tracking the
autumn samples to begin taking pictures of the samples in the showroom. I did this until the end
of the day and will finish up tomorrow morning because the account wants them by 11:00 in the
morning.

2/17/17: Friday

I started this morning by continuing to take pictures of the samples in the showroom, put them on
LK Bennetts Dropbox and renaming each photo with the name of the item, color, and whether it
was front or back. After that I organized them into folders by September, October, or Fashion
Week drop. After I finished that I helped Sam sort through the store damages. Now is the time
that stores are sending their damages to our office so we can sort through them and determine if
they can go into our sample sale at the end of March. All the stores damages havent gotten here

17
yet but we want to stay on top of it so we dont wait until right before sample sale and there be so
many damages to go through. At the end of the day I interviewed Nicola our ecommerce
manager. Hearing about her position was very interesting. She also gave me a quick assignment.
She wanted me to call Kate Spades shoe repair company they work with and ask them some
questions like what services they offer, how they partner with brands, if they give corporate
discounts or special pricing to the brands they work with.

Week 7

2/20/17: Monday

Presidents Day. Office was closed

2/21/17: Tuesday

I started my day working on an assignment Nicola, our ecommerce manager gave me. She
wanted me to look up any advertising information I could find for a list of magazines she sent
me. It was interesting because I didnt know anything about advertising and all the magazines
have this information public on their websites. They have these things called media kits that
include their reach, statistics, and different specifications for different advertisement types. It
was very interesting to see all of that and learn about it. This gave Hope and Kristy time to
complete the weekly selling report for last week. So, once I received that I did the best sellers for
last week. Hope and I are still trying to figure out what format to use. This week I did it in Excel
to see how it would work. Hope is still learning so its nice for me to be learning along with her.
That brought me to lunchtime so after lunch I finished logging all the autumn samples, which
took me well into the afternoon. After I finished that up I formatted it and sent it to Nicole. After
that I helped Sam edit the invitations for the all store event this week. Shes visiting the store in
Boston so she needed me to edit some of the wording. The event this week is a partnership with a
restaurant where the L.K. Bennett will have coupons to the restaurant and the restaurant has
coupons for L.K. Bennett. The restaurant the Chicago store is working with didnt approve some
of the wording so I edited it based off what they wanted, saved it as a PDF and PNG and sent
them off to Sam, then there were some font issues on the new one so I edited it again. After that I
called a repair company that was mentioned on Kate Spades website to see if they do corporate
partnerships, if there is any special pricing, etc. After that I typed up a summary of my
conversation and sent it to Nicola to be reviewed. That brought be right to the end of the day!

2/22/17: Wednesday

My day began with going through a box that was sent to us from the UK to make sure we
received everything we were supposed to. These are samples that Nordstrom needed full pairs of
shoes for or for other press opportunities. I emailed the wholesale department in the UK so it was
cool to have contact with them. After that I worked on some more little wholesale assignments
for Nicole. After that, Nicola our ecommerce manager asked me to do a large project for her. On
the website when you click into a product category like shoes, clothes, bags, accessories, etc.
shoes are the only category that has a filter by style option. So, Nicole trained me on how to go
into the back end of the website to add in the style filter options. I will go into every item and

18
add the style filter option so it will take a couple of days, but Im excited they gave me this task
and trust me to do it! I started working on that and midafternoon Cheryl from our customer
service department, trained me on the basics of the customer service program because shes out
of the office tomorrow. Normally the ecommerce team, Nicola and Kelly cover the phones while
shes gone but they both must be on a conference call all morning so Im going to man the
phones. After that Beatrice, our retail merchandise analyst gave me a project. We just started
working with DSW to get rid of some of our sale shoes. The shoes that Beatrice and Tony
decided on were listed in an Excel sheet and I had to put pictures by each of them. When I
finished that it was just after 5:00 so I packed up and left for the night!

2/23/17: Thursday

I started the day off by sitting at Cheryls desk ready to answer customer service calls. While I
sat there, I worked on adding in the style filters to each product if no one called in. I had a couple
customers call in while I was sitting there which was exciting and nerve racking. I placed orders
for two customers and helped answer some questions for two other customers. It was scary at
first, but I got the hang of it. After lunch time Kelly and Nicola said I could go back to my desk
since they could handle the phones during the afternoon. After lunch, I continued working on the
website style filters and got through all the clothes. After that I ran an errand with Sam to the
Madison store. A blogger asked to use some merchandise for a shoot she did that was athleisure
trend. We went through what she borrowed to make sure it was okay to go back on the sales
floor. Some items were a little dirty so we wrote them up as damaged and theyll go in the
sample sale. After we got back Sam and I worked through some more damages that the stores
sent over. We ended up doing that for the rest of the afternoon so we worked through a ton of
boxes which was great!

2/24/17: Friday

The UK sent over look books for Spring/Summer 2017 and we received them this morning. It is
a little late in the season but they want us to send them out to every store to have so customers
can look at them, take them home if they would like, our PR company can have it for potential
press opportunities, etc. I helped Sam divide them amongst stores, print out shipping labels, and
attach them to each box to be sent out later today so they can get to stores and our PR company
as soon as possible. After that, Nicole asked me to send all our wholesale accounts their order
confirmations to finalize all the orders. After I sent that Sam and I worked on processing more
damages. Each store sends multiple boxes of damaged merchandise so its taking some time to
get through them and assess the severity of each damage.

Week 8

2/27/17: Monday

I started my day finishing up the style filters for the handbags and accessories. Since there were
less SKUs in those two categories then clothing it didnt take as long. I finished this up by
lunchtime. After lunch Hope sent me the selling report and I completed the best sellers for last
week in the same format as last week. Its an Excel sheet and I think this is how Hope is going to

19
want it from now on. Meanwhile Sam was on a conference call and we finished up at the same
time so we worked on more damages, sometimes it feels like they dont end! We did finish all
the ones we had which was great! This week were receiving the warehouse damages and a
couple more stores. Sam said the warehouse will be a ton of merchandise so its good we got
ahead of the ones we have right now. After we finished up we took all the trash out and cleaned
up the area then left for the day!

2/28/17: Tuesday

I began my morning with an assignment from Nicole our wholesale assistant. She stayed home
because she is sick. So, I had to check on some samples we just received from the UK and
respond the wholesale team in the UK to let them know we received them. After that I worked
with Sam to find some Spring/Summer 2016 bag samples that could be donated to an auction.
We looked through the sample closet and checked with Nicole to make sure we could gift them
and we didnt need to sell them at sample sale. After that I took lunch and after lunch Nicola
gave me an assignment. We are in the process of changing the website look and I basically
walked through the website as if I was a customer and record if there was any missing
merchandise, if any of the links didnt work, or if the website crashed at any moment. I spent the
rest of the afternoon on this. Nicola came to my desk at about 4:45 and told me we would go
over what I had found tomorrow morning.

3/1/17: Wednesday

I came in today and the first thing I did was send Nicola my website findings from yesterday and
she said she would find some time to meet with me today about it and talk it out. After I sent that
over I worked on another assignment for Nicola. Timeout is a service in big cities around the
world and a couple locations in the US have our stores in them. They have shopping guides and a
place for reviews on the site. Our Chicago store is already on there and one of the New York
locations. Nicola wants me to get all the stores information for the locations we have in their
locations. The more our name is out there the better! I put together a document with our Atlanta,
Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Boston, and New York store information. I sent it
over to Nicola and she asked me if I could head this up so she CCed me on it so I could be in
direct contact with their staff. There is a way to claim the business, like Yelp and add pictures so
Nicola wants me to get all those answers since she has a lot going on right now. After I did that I
worked on a little project for Hope. She wanted me to get pictures of each of the core shoes that
are in stores or online right now so she had a visual of what has been ordered. After I did that I
took lunch and after lunch Sam and I started sorting the damages in the showroom by things that
need to be cleaned, buttons or seams sewn back, and damages that are too damaged to sell. The
merchandise that was so damaged we destroyed and threw away. That entails taking the labels
off everything and if its a pair of shoes we put them in separate trash bags. This is done to
protect the brand if someone were to find it in the trash or something. Then Tony decided to have
a mini sample sale just for our corporate employees of all the damages so we can start moving
them out so we got it all situated and had the sale at 3:00. After that I interviewed Kristy, our
merchandise director and cleaned up all the trash from our mini sample sale today.

3/2/17: Thursday

20
I started my day reviewing the new staging site discrepancies with Kelly, our ecommerce
coordinator. I reviewed them with Nicola yesterday but Kelly is going to be the one
communicating with the UK about all the issues so she wants to be up to speed as well. After that
I started putting together some mailers we got into groups of 50. We are sending out a $100 off
$450 mailer to various zip codes around all three New York City stores. We received 20,000
mailers in bundles of 250. I divided about 9,000 then Sam helped me separate until 11,000. We
are taking them to post offices around our three stores on Monday. Tony decided he wanted to
sell just our samples to all New York City staff next week so afterwards I helped Nicole get all
the samples together that could be shopped. We arent selling any of the spring 2017 samples
because they are still in stores and press could need it for a shoot or something like that and we
dont want to have to take merchandise from a store. All the bags were together so we had to go
through all of those to only take merchandise from before spring 2017. I also brought all the
Autumn 2017 samples into the showroom to prepare for our press day in late March. This day is
essentially any press that our PR agency invites to look at the Autumn Winter 2017 collection
one on one. So basically, the showroom has a million different things in it for our mini sample
sale before the public sample sale and the beginning of press day preparations.

3/3/17: Friday

I began the morning by working on a spreadsheet Hope, our buyer, wanted me to add some
merchandise too. Its a sheet of what our wholesale accounts have on order right now and she
wanted me to add in the numbers for what they have in their stores right now for those styles. I
had to deconstruct the pivot table which took some time but I got it all organized to Hope and
Kristys specifications and they liked my work. After I finished that, Sam and I started separating
out more mailers. We had most of them done then mid-afternoon Susanna had all the forms
ready that we needed to fill out for each post office. Basically, every bundle of 50 had to have its
own cover letter and each zip code had anywhere from a couple hundred to a couple thousand so
we had to print off a lot of cover letters and place them with each bundle then start separating
them out by post office and zip code. We almost had them all done by 5 but we still have a little
bit more to do so well finish that up first thing Monday!

Week 9

3/6/17: Monday

We finished up the rest of the bundles and got them downstairs and loaded into Tonys car. We
went to four post offices all over the city, so it took some time. Every post office did the process
differently so we had to flexible with how they wanted us to do it since there were so many
bundles. We got back to the office around 2:30. After that I worked on the best sellers sheet for
last week. Hope wanted to try doing top ten in clothes and shoes. She also wanted two separate
clothing rows, one for top sales, and one for top units sold. This gives a better view since our
dresses are the most expensive they take up the top ten sales wise. But after you look at the units
sold there are more tops and pants in the top ten. Since I had to reformat it and look up more
merchandise it took me to 5:00! It was a tiring day but Im glad we got all the mailers out.

21
3/7/17: Tuesday

This morning I helped Nicole get all the shoes out of the sample closet that will be sold at sample
sale. There were five large boxes. We went through all the shoes to make sure there werent any
visible damages, mis-sizing, or a carry-over piece we couldnt sell because we need to keep it to
show at market or for press reasons. We organized them in the showroom for our mini sample
sale with all the New York employees. The date of that is still to be determined but its coming
up soon. Everything we have in the office to sell is ready and all set out for employees to shop.
That brought me to lunch time, so after lunch I interviewed Cheryl, our customer service
department. She works with the ecommerce team so gets to see a lot more of the company rather
than working customer service at a larger company or working customer service in a physical
store. After I typed all that out Nicole asked me to gather some Autumn 2017 samples that
Nordstrom is requesting. They most likely need them to shoot photos for their website. I packed
those up printed out a label and return label and got that ready for UPS to take. After I finished
that up I worked on a project for Hope and Nicole. Von Maur is having a derby event in one of
their stores in Kentucky. When they were here for market they were talking about it and we
asked them if we could participate with some clothing too, since they only carry our footwear.
Hope and Nicole have a meeting with Tony tomorrow about what dresses we should send based
on their footwear order. Hope started a PowerPoint with potential dresses so I added in pictures
of their shoe order for summer 2017, basically what is being delivered either this month or next
month. After I finished that it was time to pack up for the day!

3/8/17: Wednesday

I started the day testing the website again with the changes the UK says they made. Kelly,
Nicola, and I tested out all the changes and clicked around the site more to see if the changes
were implemented. Since the new site is all device friendly we tried it on the computer, our
phones, and tablets. The site wasnt compatible to test on our phones yet so that test will have to
wait a couple days. We took note of the bugs to send over to the UK. I helped them the whole
morning with creating the document to send to the UK, getting screenshots of all the issues, and
describing each issue. After lunch, Sam and I started going through the damages that were sent
from the warehouse. There were quite a few boxes, so we started going through them, logging
them, and putting them in their designated space. We are trying to get this done by Friday
because Tony wants to have the mini sample sale for all the New York employees and make sure
we have enough time to get it packed up again for press day on March 22nd. We did this for most
of the afternoon. Around 4:00 I interview Beatrice, our retail merchandise analyst and she gave
me a mini Excel tutorial as well. I learned a lot from her interview and her insight on the
industry.

3/9/17: Thursday

I started the day following up with Nicola about Timeout. I went on their website to see if they
made the changes we sent them last week. I found that they hadnt made any of the changes yet
so I emailed Nicola and shes going to follow up with them today. After that Sam and I finished
up going through and logging all the damages from the warehouse and the Las Vegas store. We
are still waiting on the Columbus Circle stores and the World Trade Center store to send their

22
damages and well have all of those in the office. Sam is going to ask them to send those today
so we can have all of them here for the mini employee sample sale tomorrow. After that I played
with the new website on my phone to see if I was running into any issues. The only issues I
found were ones I made note of last week on the desktop site. After lunch Sam and I went
through some handbags we received back from the warehouse that will be potentially recalled
because the clasp doesnt shut properly. So, we counted them up and notified Tony of the
problem and he is going to talk with the UK to see if well get any money back. After we did that
we had to run to Madison to drop some stuff off that a blogger borrowed and take some stuff
back to the office.

3/10/17: Friday

This morning Nicole, our wholesale asked me to do some more research for potential wholesale
accounts, specifically in Southern California. I had done this type of research at the beginning of
my internship so I used the same tactics. I found quite a few that Nicole and Hope can go
through and decide who they want to contact. I sent that document over to them around
lunchtime. I also did some more testing on the new website. I did testing on my phone, tablet,
and computer. I made another Excel sheet of the discrepancies, also noting things that I had
already noticed that didnt get changed. After that I helped Sam out with some brainstorming for
the April event. She wants to center it around spring and have the stores partner with charities. I
did some research to see what charities are around each of the stores that were struggling to find
one. After that Sam asked me to pick out a sample handbag to submit to the American Heart
Association to be used in a raffle. I filled out the donation form and gave that to Sam to send to
the UK. That brought me to the end of the day! Cant believe Im going into my last week!

Week 10

3/13/17: Monday

This morning started with going through our staged site again to look for errors. Specifically, I
looked at the home page links and the footer links. This includes all our returns information,
privacy policy, FAQs, etc. I sent that over to Nicola so she could send it over to the UK as soon
as possible because they want the site to go live this week. Right after that I worked on the best
sellers document for Hope. This week she wants me to do two separate best seller sheets for
stores and for ecommerce. We had two big promotions last week, one in stores, and one online
so it will be interesting to see what did well on each platform. I finished that up midafternoon
because it took some extra time to do both ecommerce and stores. After that I looked up some
contact information for a New York online publication called Pulsd. It broadcasts different New
York specific events and Nicola wanted to publicize the sample sale on it. After that I went back
through the magazine contacts I found a couple weeks ago to try and dig up some more contact
information. Some of the emails bounced when Nicola tried to contact them so I tried to find
some more specific information. That brought me to the end of the day.

3/14/17: Tuesday

Office closed due to inclement weather.

23
3/15/17: Wednesday

At the beginning of the day Sam and I went through the damages from the Columbus Circle
store. We thought the World Trade Center damages would arrive but because of the storm
yesterday everything is backed up. Cheryl, customer service, was out today and the rest of the
week, so I sat at her desk the rest of the day doing customer service. While I wasnt assisting a
customer, I was doing some more site testing since I was sitting with Nicola and Kelly. The new
site has officially launched, so as problems arise they are fixing them. Normally they just cover
customer service when Cheryl is gone, but since they are constantly on calls with the UK about
the new site its best that I sit at Cheryls desk and do customer service so they dont have to
worry about it. I also worked more on contacting the magazines to get a digital advertisement
contact. I either called places or emailed the contact I did find to see if they were the right person
to contact or if there was a better contact to use.

3/16/17: Thursday

This morning Sam and I brought back some borrowed merchandise to the Madison Avenue store
and a couple of clutches we received as damages from another store because Tony thinks we can
still sell them. Susanna also needed to bring some stuff to the Columbus Circle store but she had
interviews all day so Sam and I offered to take that over for her. We also allocated some of those
clutches to the Columbus Circle store, so we needed to take those over anyway so it worked out.
Its quite a walk to Columbus Circle and with all the ice and snow from the storm on Tuesday it
was a little more difficult to get around. We got back and had lunch then after that I worked
customer service the rest of the afternoon. I returned phone calls, answered emails, and answered
the phone if any customers called. I did that the rest of the afternoon until it was time to go.

3/17/17: Friday

I cant believe its my last day as an intern at L.K. Bennett! In the morning, we went through
some stuff around that office that needed to be thrown away. We had to make room for the boxes
of samples while press day is going on. After we cleared some space, Sam, Nicole, and I started
packing up the merchandise we had out in the showroom for employees to shop. It all needed to
be put away by end of day today because they are going to start merchandising the showroom for
press day on Monday. After we finished that I went through all the Autumn and Winter 2017
ready to wear that was in the showroom and took out what we didnt buy. After I did that I made
sure everything was on the right hangers. We have hangers for storing the merchandise in the
sample closets and hangers specific for the showroom. After I finished that I walked through it
with Hope just in case there were any last-minute buys not on the sheet or anything that I missed.
I also organized it by drop so it would be clear what months the merchandise was being
delivered to stores. At the very end of the day I sent Nicola my updated advertising contacts
sheet. My time at L.K. Bennett was so amazing and I learned so much, Im so sad its over!

24
 Interviews

Susanna Tom: Human Resources Manager

Susanna.tom@lkbennett.com
2.8.17 4:00

Susanna is the person I got in contact with when I was looking to intern at L.K. Bennett
so I was very excited to interview her and get to know more about her position. I knew she was
in Human Resources but I had no idea how much that entailed, especially her being the only one.
I began by asking her what her day to day looks like and what all her position entails. She hires
employees, fires employees, trains new employees through the new hire orientation program,
enters everything into the L.K. Bennett database of all employees, handles payroll, benefits, and
open enrollment for all United States employees. After we talked about her position a little bit I
asked her how she ended up at L.K. Bennett. After she finished her undergraduate degree and
was entering graduate school she was working in the Human Resources department for a medical
company. After she finished graduate school she knew she wanted to work in the city and find a
job somewhere outside the medical world. Her previous employer had over 1,000 employees and
L.K. Bennett USA is less than 100 employees so its very different but she loves it. She likes that
she knows everyone's names and details about them instead of them being a name on a piece of
paper. Shes also loved seeing the growth L.K. Bennett has had being so small to start out. Next I
asked her what some of the major challenges were to her position. She answered that as much as
she loves the smaller work environment it does hinder her in some ways. Being a small company
has its pros and cons. Its much harder to recruit top talent because the brand awareness and
recognition is low. Companies like Kate Spade and Tory Burch are so well known and people
know the name so they would go work for them rather than a smaller company like L.K. Bennett.
Its much harder to compete with those larger companies from a recruitment stand point. After
that I asked her about the skill set needed to be successful in Human Resources. She said you
must have people skills and can work with different personalities and people. You should be a
leader in a sense to coach, train, and build relationships with these new employees. She stressed
that being able to work with people was a must. There are going to be people that are very
talented and get the job done their own way that she might not necessarily agree with and shes
had to learn how to accept all peoples personalities and ways of doing things. Another major
skill needed is time management. Lastly, I asked her for any advice for students like me
graduating college and entering the fashion industry. She said that working for a small company
when you start out is extremely beneficial. It shows you all aspects of the business and what you
may have thought you liked you may end up hating just from seeing it in the business. It allows
you to figure out what you are passionate about and what you want to do with the rest of your
life. The time to figure that out is right out of college and not later down the road when youre so
invested in your career to change it. Not only figuring out what area you want to pursue but also
a general knowledge of what everyone in the office does and how the business runs and the
operation makes for a much better employee. Her last piece of advice was always aim big!

25
Nicole Harris: Wholesale Assistant at L.K. Bennett
Nicole.harris@lkbennett.com
2.8.17 11:00

I started by asking Nicole about her job responsibilities. It varies from day to day especially
when market week comes around. Specifically pertaining to market, she does market
preparations, model casting, presenting the new line, order summaries, and recaps. I didn't know
what an order summary was so I asked her and she said that when each accounts orders come in
during market they are individual confirmations of what they ordered so the account can have
that on file. Then on the internal side of things, all the accounts orders are placed on a large
spreadsheet with our smaller accounts, anything Canada bought, our major accounts, Nordstrom,
ShopBop, Zappos, etc. and our own stores. This is used internally to have a summary of what
was popular which leads into what a recap is, which is what Nicole is working on right now
since market ended last week. A recap is the general reaction to the collection, what buyers noted
in common, what buyers ended up buying, what buyers are seeing in the market, and overall
feedback. After orders come in Nicole will tweak it for the final recap. Other wholesale
responsibilities are inventory management, managing cancellations from accounts, and
oversolds, scouting new accounts, and overall growth of the wholesale business because it is still
relatively small. Nicole's job is very extensive, and without a wholesale director in place it can
be a lot on one person. Next I asked how she ended up at L.K. Bennett. Nicole used to work in
retail as a manager at one of our wholesale accounts. Nicole didnt like working in retail so she
left her job and was unemployed trying to find a job on the corporate side of things. After a
couple months, the wholesale director here at L.K. Bennett recruited her to come work in the
wholesale department. I also asked about some of the major challenges to her position. She
mentioned being the only one in the wholesale department makes things very difficult. Brand
awareness isnt as high in the United States as it is in the United Kingdom, so some accounts
have never seen the brand or are hesitant to bring us on. She also works very closely with the
United Kingdom. She must get a lot of things approved by them, updated product information
when market is going on, and the shipping time for samples or for store shipments takes longer. I
also asked about the skill set needed for her position as wholesale assistant. She mentioned, time
management skills because everything needs to get done in a timely manner and there is a lot
that goes into wholesale. Another skill you need is multitasking, one moment she could be
working on someone's order, then get a call from another account wanting to do a return to
vendor, then get an email about cancellations. She said you need social skills and some public
speaking background since it is a selling position. You must be personable and approachable and
can sell the latest line youre presenting. You also need to have business development skills and
retail math skills. There are also many different computer programs that go into a wholesale
position, so being able to learn those quickly, and already have a proficient understanding of
Excel is necessary. Finally, I asked if she had any advice for myself or my peers graduating and
entering the industry and she said to be as hands on as possible because a lot of positions may
look more glamorous then they are, so knowing what you are getting into ahead of time can give
you a leg up. The experience you gain working in different areas also sets you apart. Also,
maintaining contacts is important because the industry is so small and you never know who
could end up helping you get a job.

26
Samantha Gowe: Administrative Assistant at L.K. Bennett
samantha.gowe@lkbennett.com
2.7.17 3:00

I began by asking Sam what her position entails on a day to day basis at LK Bennett. She
said her days are always different because she is providing any administrative assistance for
Tony, the President, and Alyssa, the Vice President of Retail. When she started, she was mainly
just assisting Tony, but Alyssa has needed some help with the stores. Shell help Tony plan his
travel, any projects he needs her to do, and many more. For example, there is a big managers
meeting in March when all the store managers will come up to New York. Sam has been
planning a lot of the logistics like the hotel the managers will stay in, where the meetings will
take place, and what incentives to give to the managers. When Sam does things for Alyssa it is
mainly organizing in-store events or keeping the stores accountable for anything Alyssa asks
them to do. The in-store events have become Sams main responsibilities. She outreaches to
charities and other businesses in the areas where are stores are to plan in-store events that could
benefit both our business and their business. She brainstorms ideas for in-store events, such as
the event in January was a New Year, New Me event and the event in February will partner
with restaurants in the area for a Valentines Day centered event. On top of the event planning,
whenever any of the New York locations are short staffed Sam will go and work at that store for
a shift so the employees dont have to skip breaks. On top of assisting Tony and Alyssa she also
assists anyone else in the office who needs help. She has helped during wholesale markets and
with ecommerce tasks. Sam was previously a store manager at Delias before they went out of
business, then she worked at Rent the Runway in their customer service department. She didnt
like working in customer service at Rent the Runway, and Alyssa used to work for the Delias
franchise, so Alyssa reached out to her with an open position at L.K. Bennett. Sam came and met
Tony about a month later and after about a month she began working here as the administrative
assistant. Next I asked her about any challenges she faces in her position. She mentioned the age
gap between herself and store managers and how that can be difficult to have them take her
seriously. Its a challenge because they dont report to her they report to Alyssa so sometimes
Sam feels like the stores dont listen to what she says even though it comes straight from Alyssa.
She said being the middle man is difficult because sometimes they think she is trying to boss
them around and thats far from whats happening. She also said a challenge is making herself
available to everyone in the office. Sometimes she has a ton to do for Tony and Alyssa and if
someone asks her to do something she must say no or has to wait and finish her other task first.
After that I asked her about any skills she must have to be successful in her position. She said
you must be super organized, prompt, personable, and can memorize some things. I also asked
her if she had any advice for me or anyone graduating college and entering the fashion industry.
She said to keep an open mind and dont assume that you know what you want to do until youve
tried multiple things. She likes L.K. Bennett because you get to see different things and how they
all work together to keep the company operating smoothly. She recommended trying different
things to figure out what you like because fashion has so many different parts. Finally, ask a lot
of questions. I loved hearing more about Sams position and everything that it entails, because
its quite a lot!

27
Nicola Miller: Ecommerce Manager at L.K. Bennett
Nicola.miller@lkbennett.com
2.23.17 4:00

I was very excited to interview Nicola Miller who is our ecommerce manager at L.K.
Bennett. I was very interested to hear about her job and what all goes into it. I first asked her just
that, what her position entails and what her day to day looks like. Her overall job is to manage
the US and Canadian website and all the digital marketing. Another part of her job is to oversee
everything from the beginning to the end of the customer experience, which is from when the
customer first hears about the brand through any marketing, their first interaction on the website,
their entire shopping experience on the website, the customers transaction, finally the reaction
when the customer receives the product, and any customer service in between. Next I asked her
how she ended up at L.K. Bennett. Shes had a long road but shes always been in fashion. She
majored in journalism in college with the hopes of becoming a journalist at a magazine one day.
She started her career in the public relations department at Burberry. After that job, she was
finally working at Lucky Magazine as their fashion editor. She was there for about 6 years and
she noticed the shift from print to ecommerce and that the industry was changing, and decided
she needed to go in that direction to have a successful career. She shifted into ecommerce at
Anthropologie where she commuted to and from New York and Philadelphia, which became
super tough on her so she decided to find a job in the city. As she was searching she did
ecommerce freelance for a while then found a job at Hunter Boots. She was the ecommerce
manager there and within the first year of having a US site their business grew from $4 million to
$30 million. She loved seeing the business grow so rapidly just within the year she was there.
She said there were difficulties keeping up with a booming business because no one thought it
would be that successful. There started to be a lot of operational issues so she left Hunter and so
worked at two startups Honor and Suno that closed within a year. After she left those startups she
ended up at L.K. Bennett. Next I asked her about some of the major challenges she faces. She
was telling me that the system we use is complex and there are a lot of different integrations
which makes it not as flexible to use. Another major challenge in ecommerce is the unpredictable
economy. Shopping is so different now then what it used to be, everyone can compare prices and
go with a cheaper alternative. Its hard to be competitive without decreasing the value of the
brand or the brand positioning. Next I asked her about specific skills she had to be successful in
her position and she said you must have good project management skills since there are always
different projects coming up. Another skill set you need is a numbers side but also a creative side
as well. She didnt come from a numbers background being in journalism so having to learn that
made it a little more difficult. She likes that a smaller company like L.K. Bennett lets you have
your hand in both areas or creativity and numbers. In bigger organizations, its very streamlined
into one aspect which makes it not as fun. Lastly, I asked her for any advice. She said to always
be networking because everyone knows everyone and having connections gets you far. Even
within the office a couple of them have had the same boss at different companies. She said
whenever I go to find a job reach out to all of them in the office. She also said to have a positive
attitude, have a good work ethic, and do whatever is asked of you because everyone should pay
their dues and do the grunt work and to not be above it all.

28
Kelly Kalenka: Ecommerce Coordinator at L.K. Bennett
Kelly.kalenka@lkbennett.com
3.3.17 3:00

I was very excited to interview Kelly because I am starting to get very interested in
ecommerce and Kelly is in the entry level position for ecommerce so I wanted to hear more
about her job and responsibilities to gauge what I might be doing if I end up in ecommerce. I first
asked her what all her position entails and what she does day to day. Her responsibilities include
managing the website, assisting in marketing promotions, assisting in all the back-end website
systems, product uploads, creative banners, and email brief designs to send out to customers. She
basically assists with anything Nicola, our ecommerce manager and Kristy, our merchandising
director needs. She loves that its something different every day and that its constantly
changing. Next I asked her how she ended up at L.K. Bennett. She told me she was a marketing
major in college but always knew she wanted to go into the fashion industry in some shape or
form. She started in planning and she didnt like it at all. It was Excel all day with no creativity
which she wanted. She decided to start looking for a job and thought ecommerce would be a
good field to go into, since it would be something different every day and it would be more
creative then a numbers based Excel job. She loved the brand and had a connection with Tony,
our president, through her college, so she connected with him and got the job. Next I asked her
about some of the challenges she faces on a day to day basis within her job and ecommerce. She
said that although ecommerce is exciting because it changes every day and there is always
something new popping up, because of this you can never fully prepare for it. You should roll
with the punches basically and it always keeps you on your toes. She also said it was an
adjustment to thinking outside of the box always. You want to keep the company modern with
the new and changing times, but do it in a unique way that sets you apart and builds up brand
awareness even more. A specific challenge right now is changing the website layout. They have
been creating this new website for over a year and you want to make sure you catch anything that
is wrong with it because you dont want the customer to have a bad customer experience on the
site. After that I asked her about what specific skills you need to be successful in ecommerce.
She said you must be flexible because as she said before something is always changing in
ecommerce, so you should be quick on your toes to problem solve and come up with another
alternative. She also said you must be a creative and critical thinker to be able to come up with
new and fresh ideas. She said that in any position you should be a team player but especially in
ecommerce because you are most likely working on a team with people who have different
opinions of what should be done so sometimes you should realize that your idea wasnt as great
as anothers or vice versa. But on the opposite side you also must be able to be self-independent
because at the end of the day you have to get your job done and no one is going to do that for
you, which goes for all jobs and not just ecommerce. Finally, I asked her for any advice for
students like me graduating and entering the fashion industry. She said dont be afraid to fail
because you will at some point, find what you are passionate about and attack it full force to
learn as much as you can about it, and just as she switched jobs because she didnt like it dont
be afraid to go against what you thought you wanted to do. She always had a passion for
technology so she followed her passion and connected it with fashion, her other passion.

29
Mallory Hattori-McKee: Visual Manager at L.K. Bennett
Mallory.hattori-mckee@lkbennett.com
2.16.17 12:30

I was excited to get to interview Mallory! Shes the visual manager at L.K. Bennett which is
very different from the other positions in the office. Since the United States office doesnt have
any design element, her position is probably the most creative in the office. First, I asked her
what her position entails on a day to day basis. She loves her job because she is doing something
different every day. Her main responsibilities are overseeing and directing all the US stores on
window displays and in store presentations. She also oversees all store design and all new store
openings. Some days shell go to a store in the New York area to maintain a display, update
something, or bring over new fixtures, but some days shes in the office all day communicating
with vendors. Next I asked her how she got into the industry and how she ultimately ended up at
L.K. Bennett. She started in the field as a visual merchandiser at Forever 21. She moved to New
York soon after and worked at Chanel as a project manager in visual merchandising. She liked it
but it is such a big company and as a luxury brand she was very micro managed and there wasnt
as much opportunity for growth so she decided to leave and find another job she loved. In the
meantime, she did freelance work for Kate Spade. She said she liked it and it was interesting to
see how other companies worked without being directly involved. As she was freelancing she
was looking for a permanent job and thats how she landed here at L.K. Bennett. Next I asked
her about the major challenges that come with her position. She said her job as a visual
merchandiser is difficult because she cant travel to all the stores constantly so getting stores to
communicate with her is difficult. For example, every month when the floor sets or windows
change she asks the stores to send her pictures so she can make changes that way. Since she isnt
there to directly enforce it the stores can be a little slow getting the pictures to her sometimes.
From a company standpoint, our newest store at World Trade Center has been her latest focus.
There are many issues and challenges passing certain inspections like fire code and others. It is
especially difficult in that location because there are so many rules. Customers also dont know
the Oculus is a mall so creating new displays that will attract customers is Mallory's latest
challenge. Next I asked her about the skills she should have to be successful in visual
merchandising. She said you should have a high taste level to know what looks good with the
level of luxury in a brand, a creative background as well as an analytical side to plan dimensions.
Another skill she said is a sense of urgency to make sure projects get done in a timely manner
and getting it done as quickly as possible, especially in new stores. She also said problem solving
is very important because you can plan for something all day but once you get in there and it
doesnt work you must come up with a solution fast. The last skill she mentioned was being able
to multitask. Finally, I asked her for any advice for students like me graduating college and
entering the fashion industry and she said her biggest advice would be to work hard and be nice
to people. The fashion industry is a very small world and you never know who youll be working
with or for down the road. She also said networking and building strong connections is so
important because you never know who could open an opportunity for you. She also said use
internships or temporary positions to gain insight into what you want to do career wise and to
build your resume.

30
Cheryl Craig: Customer Service
Cheryl.craig@lkbennett.com
3.7.17 1:00

I was very excited to interview Cheryl because customer service is something that isnt
taught in schools. I remember when I started my internship thinking that her position was easier
and not too difficult, however I was very wrong. Cheryl trained me a couple weeks ago on some
customer service basics and it was so much information to keep track of and to know the precise
steps to whatever you are doing in the system. When Cheryl was training me she emphasized the
importance of maintaining the balance of making sure customers are happy but not diminishing
the value of the brand. Customer service is also a very important aspect of a company's structure
so I was interested to hear what Cheryl had to say about the field of customer service and at L.K.
Bennett. First I asked her what all her position entails, and its a lot. Overall it is of course
customer service, but there is so much that goes into that. She answers phone calls from
customers, answers emails from customers, communicates with the warehouse, and more. She
uses a system that is comparable to the POS systems used in the store but it is a more corporate
version that has access to all our customers information across the country. This system does so
much but some of the most important uses are placing manual orders for customers, checking to
see the status of a website order, looking up a customers purchase history, etc. Theres also a
feature that flags purchases over a certain dollar amount to make sure it isnt a fake credit card
and we wont have merchandise disappear without payment. It is a complicated system that takes
a lot of knowledge to run. She also must manually process website exchanges because we dont
have an exchange system in place at the warehouse. Another big part of her job is tracking down
merchandise a customer may want that was either sold out on the website or sold out in the store
they were shopping in. Cheryl has a giant spreadsheet or the stock levels of all our items so she
can make sure we have it and can sell it to the customer. Her job is so much more then this but
this is the overview of what takes up most of her time. Next I asked her how she ended up at
L.K. Bennett and she said they recruited her after finding her resume online. She was working as
a floor supervisor at Henri Bendel, and had always worked in retail prior which involved a lot of
customer service through returns, tracking down merchandise, and dealing with customer issues.
Next I asked her about some major challenges she faces in her position. She said that the site and
technology can have glitches at times but that just comes with being a smaller company. She said
if we had the time to tackle those it would be a much better experience for the customer. The
warehouse can also be unorganized at times which is frustrating, they might not ship the right
item or they cant find the physical product in the warehouse after the customer has placed the
order, just to name a few examples. Next I asked her about specific skills and she said patience
is the number one skill you must have in customer service. Also, resourcefulness and the ability
to think outside the box because being a smaller company starting out, there arent rules or set
protocol in place for customer service and having to come up with the best one for the company
can be taxing. Another issue is international customers shopping on the US site and having to
help them on the UK site. Lastly, I asked for some advice and she said to try out as many
different areas as possible and to cast a wide net because youll never know if you're good at
something else that you could potentially be very passionate and happy about.

31
Kristy Lynch: Merchandise Director
Kristy.lynch@lkbennett.com
3.1.17 3:30

Today I interviewed Kristy Lynch who is L.K. Bennetts merchandise director. She is a part
of what she calls the original five which were the five employees who were working here
when L.K. Bennett came overseas to America. She wears many different hats which is what she
says happens when you work for a smaller company. Her official job description is the director
of merchandise planning and ecommerce, and before Hope joined she was doing all the buying.
On the planning side of things, she sets plans with Tony, our President and Andrey, our
controller so she knows the overall financial situation before planning and merchandising. She
plans based on the stores, department, class, accounts for discounts, sell through goals, ending
inventory goals, and much more. Another aspect of her job is the end season strategy and
analyzing weekly selling with our retail merchandise analyst, Beatrice, to make sure deliveries
are going out on time and are accurate. At the end of the season shes also in charge of
liquidating excess merchandise on our own website through sales or off price retailers like Haute
Look or Nordstrom Rack. The ecommerce side of her job also entails a lot. Everyone on the
ecommerce team reports to Kristy. She decides with the team what products need focus and they
will send out promotional emails. Since ecommerce is still so new she is very focused on
growing that side of the business and working closely with the UK to make sure the brand is
staying consistent. Its sometimes difficult because the product we buy is different from the UK
and the customer is different so marketing to both can be a challenge and the scheduling is very
different for both businesses. She also works closely with the IT team because we are in the
process of getting a new site layout that will be friendly on all devices like the computer,
smartphone, or tablet. Shes also constantly doing analysis on updating the site. She also
oversees the customer service piece to make sure the brand is always represented in a positive
way but also not making customers angry. She ended up at LK Bennett right when they came
over the US, Tony and her both worked at Diesel and they had a mutual coworker who suggested
Kristy to Tony because she was in the process of looking for a new position. She was also
wanting to move into a smaller company because everyone works together and the environment
is so much better to work in. Next I asked her about some challenges she faces on a day to day
basis and its mostly just working with a growing company because things are constantly
evolving and you must be able to come up with solutions to problems quickly. The process and
procedures we use arent the best since we are such a new company so those can be difficult to
use at times. Another major issue is brand awareness and building brand equity, she remembers
when she started no one knew what LK Bennett was unless they were obsessed with the princess.
Its also difficult to gauge how fast were going to grow and if new people need to be hired
quickly. Some skills she must have to be successful in her position is to be able to manage
multiple things, be flexible, be analytical, she started her career in finance, be proficient in Excel,
be a team player and work well with people, and finally to be open to constantly learning
because there is always something new especially in ecommerce. Lastly, I asked her for some
advice and she said having this experience is so beneficial because Im getting exposure in
different areas, but also being open to working in different areas to figure out what I like and to
know how the overall business works.

32
Beatrice Chan: Retail Merchandise Analyst
Beatrice.chan@lkbennett.com
3.8.17 4:00

I was very interested to interview Beatrice Chan, our retail merchandise analyst. I didnt
know what went into her job entirely so I was interested to learn more about it. First I asked her
essentially that, what all her position entails. Her primary responsibility is to allocate the product
that we buy. She pulls reports constantly and works closely with Hope, our buyer, and Kristy,
our planner. Every Monday Kristy does the sales report for the previous week, this is the file that
Beatrice works in mostly. Its a large Excel file that has multiple worksheets showing the
previous weeks sales in different ways. She also deals with any requests for transfers from
stores, see what product is driving the best, what is performing slower and how to liquidate that
or mark it down earlier than planned. Every month there is a delivery to all the stores so Beatrice
and Kristy work together to allocate all the merchandise to the stores. Each store has a specific
sales plan on what their sales should be and the allocation corresponds to their sales plan, for
example the bigger the store with higher sales the more merchandise they get. After I realized
what all she did within her position I asked her how she ended up at L.K. Bennett and about her
career. She has been in the planning realm of things for about 10 years now. Before L.K. Bennett
she was at Macys for most of that 10 years. She started in fine jewelry at another company then
moved into Macys and became their analyst in the fashion jewelry business. However, when the
stock market crashed no one wore jewelry, it was a very minimalist time, especially in fashion
jewelry. Macys moved her into allocating coats, and she was there for about two years before
coming to L.K. Bennett. After that I asked her about some of the challenges she faces on a day to
day basis. She said the retail business overall is the biggest challenge as of right now. Customers
are moving from shopping in a brick and mortar store to online platforms. Retail customers are
also looking for more bargains now than ever, whether that be a promotion or more markdowns.
The challenge there is that your company obviously makes more money when the item is sold at
full price, and if the customer wont purchase it until it is marked down your business is missing
out on a lot of potential profit. A fact she told me that I hadnt even thought about before is the
presence of brand names and private labels on a wholesalers website. She sometimes must deal
with this while liquidating our product, but she even found that at Macys brand names sell so
much better then private labels. If people are going online to buy something they will recognize
brand names more than private labels. Which is why large wholesalers like Macys dont feature
private labels on their website. Another challenge specifically with L.K. Bennett is the dressing
down trend. After that I asked her what skills you need to have to be successful at a retail
merchandise analyst. She said math, math, math and knowing Excel backwards and forwards.
She said you must know how to interpret the reports you are given and manipulate the
information to see what you need to see. Lastly, I asked her for any advice she has for a recent
graduate entering the fashion industry. She said what many have said before, to try and get your
foot in different aspects of the retail business. She said thats the only way youll truly find what
you are passionate about and what you want your career to be. She said she can already see that
in me because Im working in so many different areas here like buying and planning for retail,
wholesale, and ecommerce. She even gave me a little Excel lesson after our interview!

33
Hope Beach: Buying Director
Hope.beach@lkbennett.com
3.10.17 3:00

I was very excited to interview Hope our buying director because Ive always had an interest
in that field and was looking forward to getting some more information about the job
responsibilities and what kind of skills you need to be successful. Shes also a great worker and I
love working with her so I was also excited to hear her advice. First I asked her what all her
position entails. She oversees the buying for retail stores and our ecommerce site. Right now,
shes working with Kristy, our planner, on both because Kristy has been doing the buy for a
while now. Eventually Hope will do the retail buy by herself and then work with Kristy on the
ecommerce buy since it is such a large part of the business. In addition to buying for our stores
she also oversees our wholesale business. That includes wholesale sales and inventory for all our
accounts. After that I asked her how she ended up at L.K. Bennett, she told me a recruiter
reached out to her on LinkedIn. She was working at Hugo Boss previously which was a much
different experience because it is a much larger company and there are a lot more people to work
with. She liked working with people who were so passionate about what they were doing but she
said there are positive sides to working for a smaller company as well. Before Hugo Boss she
was at French Connection in their buying department. She started her career in the field as a store
manager then a district manager, then about 10 years ago she moved into the buying field. Since
she had so much retail experience she started as an associate buyer instead of an assistant buyer
or another entry level equivalent. Next I asked her about some major challenges in buying and in
her position overall. She said the challenge is always balancing your companys sales to stock.
Also, ensuring the offer youre being given from brand management is the right thing for your
market, which obviously poses problems with our brand management team being in the UK and
us being in the US. Within wholesale a major challenge is gathering all the data and organizing
and managing multiple accounts consistently. Next I asked her what skill set you must have to be
successful as a buyer. She said you should be analytical and well informed. She said the buying
position is balanced between analysis and trend forecasting so it is the intermediary between the
design team which is the creative side and the financial side which is more analytical. She said
you also must have a broad interest base, great verbal and written communication skills, being
able to multi task. In terms of technology, knowing Microsoft Office is a must as well as feeling
comfortable with either internal or external data systems, such as SAP which is a retail reporting
system that allows reports to be generated. She thinks eventually buyers should do some sort of
coding that will keep up with the systems in place. Lastly, I asked her for any advice for a recent
graduate entering the fashion industry. She told me the biggest thing is to be open to
opportunities and eager to learn. She also said its important to understand what track youre on,
and if I was to go into buying or planning to understand the other because they work together so
often and it also helps to know how the whole process works. Also, being able to connect to the
product is important, at least to her it is. She also said that the best people to work with are those
who are hungry for information and hungry to work. You must be able to bring something to the
table by either having an opinion or providing something that isnt scripted or has been said
before and to be ready to take on projects and work long hours.

34
 Interviews Summary

Overall the interviews were very informative and interesting. I wanted to talk to every
department in the office so I could better understand the different aspects of the industry. I asked
basic questions that would give me an overall view of their responsibilities, their careers, and
what the high points are of their jobs, what the challenges are of their jobs, and finally any advice
for a college student graduating and entering the fashion industry. When I started, I saw some
employees job titles and didnt know what all went into it. For example, I thought Cheryl who
does customer service didnt have a huge load because we are a smaller business but after getting
trained in the system we use and hearing her talk about it, it was so much more than I thought it
was. Another example is Beatrice, who is our retail merchandise analyst. I thought that a planner
and the employee who allocates the merchandise were one in the same when I started but
realized after my interview and just working with Beatrice and Kristy, our planner, that the two
positions are very different and both are extremely important to the success of the business.
Another interesting finding was more knowledge of the business. We obviously learn the
processes in classes but having a real-world example was very beneficial, and making that
connection helped. For example, since ecommerce is still so new there isnt a lot of information
that can be taught in classes yet so getting to work with this emerging business was very
beneficial, and I heard multiple times that ecommerce is the way to go because the retail business
just isnt what it was and one day it might all the ecommerce without any brick and mortar
stores. However, it being so new makes it a very unpredictable business to be in as well. One of
the questions I was most excited to hear answers for was the advice question. Im always looking
for industry professionals advice, because maybe theyve made a mistake and learned from that
you wont make someday. I also thought everyones advice would be different from their own
personal experiences and most everyone said similar things. The biggest thing to do is to try
everything and figure out what you absolutely love and go at that passionately. The industry is
also extremely small and everyone youll meet will know someone from the company you may
potentially work for in the future. It is very important not to burn bridges and to be nice and
courteous to everyone you meet. Something else I wasnt entirely expecting was similar skills
needed in different positions. Most everyone said you would need to have good people skills and
communication because you are constantly working in a team setting, however, you also must
have personal discipline and time management skills to get projects done. Its like school with
due dates, but without a teacher to motivate you to get it done, is what Kelly, our ecommerce
coordinator said.

35
 Store/Firm Project

Problem/Opportunity and Goals

An opportunity that I believe LK Bennett should investigate is increased visibility on

Yelp.com. I have been assigned this project by the Ecommerce Director. Currently there are only
three LK Bennett locations on Yelp out of 13 total United States locations. I have been given the
opportunity to create our Yelp business account, claim the locations already on Yelp.com, create
new locations, and input all the business information such as hours, address, website, photos, etc.
Yelp has become such a huge information hub and consumers look at the reviews and choose
whether to go there or not based on other consumers experiences. 142 million users visit Yelp
every month so LK Bennetts business profile should give consumers the same experience as
when they walk into a store. Another statistic I found shocking is that when business owners
claimed their businesses on Yelp revenue went up more than $15,000. Many of our competitors
have great Yelp profiles with photos of their newest merchandise out in stores or online, public
responses to upset consumer reviews, and accurate business information. Those are the
businesses with great reviews and consumers who constantly go back and recommend it to their
friends. I hope that the result from the project will be greater visibility of the brand, increased
positive reviews, and increased revenue.
One of my goals is greater visibility of the brand. Yelp for business owners has statistics
that tell you how many customers viewed your profile that day or how many customers clicked
the website link from the page. Once the stores have functioning profiles this will be much easier
to measure. Right now, it is very difficult to measure since there are only three locations out
there. Another goal is increased positive reviews. The reviews out there right now are from years
ago and are very negative. Many businesses will write public responses to those reviews so other
customers can see that they have responded to the negativity and tried to fix the consumers
problem. This also shows consumers that the company is very consumer focused and all about
making their shopping experience positive. Another one of my goals is increasing the amount of
customer reviews. Currently there are no reviews on the Houston page, three reviews on the
Hackensack, New Jersey page, and twelve reviews on the Columbus Circle page which is the
only one for New York area currently, so all three stores in the city are being reviewed under just
the one location. My final goal is greater revenue, which will be a bit harder to measure since LK
Bennett is a global company, but I believe with more professional Yelp profiles, increased
revenue will be one of the great benefits. As for a personal goal, I am excited to learn about Yelp
and how businesses utilize their tools for success.
These goals line up with the SMART goals. It is specific because the locations are either
on Yelp.com or they are not. It is measurable by an increase in revenue, customer reviews, or
customer check ins, website clicks, mobile calls, etc. These goals are attainable, many
businesses in our same market have been successful in building Yelp profiles and have great
customer reviews. These are also very realistic goals because many businesses use Yelp and it is
very successful for them. Its also very time specific because building the Yelp profile itself
wont take all that long, however, the up keep will be something that will fall under the customer
service department or the ecommerce department. Having a better Yelp profile will create more
customer reviews, which will lead to more traffic, which leads to more revenue and overall
success for the company.

36
Plan of Action

I will begin by creating an LK Bennett Yelp business account. After that I will claim the
three LK Bennett locations that are already on Yelp.com and make sure the general business
information is correct, such as the phone number, address, hours, etc. After those are claimed I
will create the other 10 LK Bennett locations. I am working with a Yelp customer service
employee linked to our account so whenever I have questions she will be able to assist me. Im
also working with LK Bennetts ecommerce director, Nicola. When locations are added to Yelp,
it takes a few days of processing time. As locations are being rolled into Yelp I will update the
store information. When locations are added the phone number is called to verify the business
being added is being done by the business. Therefore, I must call each store when I add them into
the Yelp database and give them an access code for verification. Once all the stores are added I
will add pictures of each storefront and promotional photos from the line that is most current out
in stores.

Procedure

I began by creating Yelp pages for each store. This involved creating the page, getting it
approved on Yelps side, and after it was approved I had to claim it under L.K Bennetts
business account. Their verification process was a phone call where the store had to enter a
verification code. I had to call each store with the verification code. Once it was verified I added
campaign images to each page and a picture of the store front. Nicola, our ecommerce manager
contacted each store and asked them to ask loyal customers to leave reviews. A couple of stores
had increased reviews, but many stayed the same throughout my internship. Each Friday I
checked to see if there were any more reviews. The first week some of the pages werent verified
yet so I designated that N/A. Then each column lists the star rating of each store followed by the
number of reviews to date.

Outcome

When I began this project, I started on February 6th and each Friday after that I checked
on any customer activity and the number of reviews. Although the reviews didnt increase much,
it was a very large step getting each location on Yelp. Since beginning our Yelp, we have had
five people click on our website, a user call a store from Yelp, view our business on a map,
check in, and upload photos. Although some of the stores didnt increase in reviews or star rating
the visibility of the brand increased.

Store 2/6-2/10 2/13-2/17 2/20-2/24 2/27-3/3 3/6-3/10 3/13-3/17

Chicago 4.5/4 4.5/4 4.5/4 4.5/4 4.5/4 4.5/5
Atlanta 2.5/3 2.5/3 2.5/3 2.5/3 2.5/3 2.5/3
Hackensack 1/3 1/3 1/3 1/3 1/3 1/3
Houston N/A 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0
Columbus 2/12 2.5/13 2.5/13 2.5/13 2.5/13 2.5/13
Circle
Somerset N/A 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0
LA N/A 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0

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 Las Vegas 4/1 4/1 4/1 4/1 4/1 4/1
Boston N/A 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0
Westchester N/A 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0
Madison Ave N/A 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0
World Trade N/A 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0
Center
Tanger Outlet N/A 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0

Evaluation of the Outcome

Some goals were achieved and some I wish would have been completed. My goal to
increase visibility of the brand was attained because of the customer activity page. There were a
couple more positive reviews added to a couple of stores pages. That is one goal I wish was met
more. The tone of the reviews is very important to customers and may be the decision factor if a
consumer decides to go to that business. I have found that many businesses take time to have
positive reviews on Yelp. Those businesses have a large following and brand awareness. It is
difficult for smaller businesses to have a competitive edge on Yelp. My other goal of increased
customer reviews was met but I wish there were more reviews. However, I only measured the
amount of reviews over six weeks and I know over time there will be more reviews. My final
goal of increased revenue was very hard to measure, but I know that over time with increased
reviews and increased brand awareness revenue will increase. I believe that next time if we were
to ask frequent customers to write positive reviews it would just make the outcomes of these
goals so much better.

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 Self-Evaluation

I loved interning at L.K. Bennett! I thought I did a good job. I always asked what needed

to be done and if there was anything more I could do towards each project. I was busy most of

the time but there was some down time. I usually asked for things to do if I didnt have anything

to do, however I could have done a better job of asking for things to do when I had down time.

Most of my down time I just worked on my internship portfolio, but it could have been spent

working on projects for the company. Susanna, the HR manager was my main supervisor and

checked on me every day, but I was supervised by other employees who I was doing projects for.

I liked working for a smaller company because I got to work in many different departments, and

if I worked for a larger company I may have been limited to one department. I got to experience

wholesale, ecommerce, the buying team, and just jobs around the office. I was introduced to

different areas that I might not have been if I was interning somewhere else. I was very humbled

by my supervisor, Susannas evaluation. I thought I did a good job and just having that validated

was very humbling. Moving to New York for 10 weeks was a very intimidating thought and at

first I was very overwhelmed. But after getting acclimated and used to my surroundings I fell in

love with the city. I was using this internship as a test to see if I would want to start my career in

New York, and Im glad I did because I know thats where I want to be after graduation. All in

all, it was such an amazing experience and Im so glad I got to intern at L.K. Bennett!

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 Program Analysis

CADS 3850 and 5850 were very helpful when I was working with the buying team. I

needed to know formulas off the top of my head whenever I was running weekly selling reports

or creating the best seller sheets each week. CADS 5600 gave me a background on how ordering

internationally worked and different shipping terms, which was helpful since we shipped to and

from the United Kingdom and Canada. Textiles was also helpful. During market, accounts asked

about fabrication and I could give insight on what certain fabrics and textiles did under certain

weather conditions or washing instructions. Since eCommerce is so new I didnt know a lot

about it coming into my internship, but it is such a huge part of the industry now. More insight

on that side of the business would have been helpful before I completed my internship, however,

I learned a lot working in the field. I was never put in any situation that I didnt feel prepared. I

asked the proper questions and got answers if I wasnt sure how to proceed, and everyone in the

office was helpful and informative. I wish I would have taken both history classes. I took history

of costume, but I think I would have also benefited from taking history of fashion since 1910. I

think our program is so well rounded and it gives Auburn students an upper hand. Many fashion

majors that go to school in New York must pick a specialty their second year. I appreciated

learning about the entire product life cycle and not having to select an area to work in so early on

without learning about other opportunities. Overall, I felt very prepared going into my internship

and confident throughout.

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 Evaluation of On-Site Supervisor

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 42
 Thank You Notes

Thank You Note to Susanna Tom, Human Resource Manager

Thank You Note to Tony Dimasso, President of L.K. Bennett

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 Thank You Note to the whole team

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 Extra Credit

Alex Wood: Production Coordinator and Trim Buyer at Helmut Lang

Graduated May 2015
Apparel Design

Charlie Licht: Assistant Buyer at Bergdorf Goodman (Coats, Swimwear, Lingerie, 5F Jewelry)
Graduated May 2016
Apparel Merchandising and Design

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