Kirna Zabête

We were introduced to Kirna Zabête by First Mark Capital. At the time of introduction, Kirna Zabête was at a cross-roads, having become the fashion darlings of NYC stylists, editors and glamorous women from around the globe. Given the landscape of retail, KZ had a multitude of directions, partnership opportunities and strategies, to be prioritized in order to optimize their growth potential. So, through our strategy consulting and omnichannel strategy services, we set out to lay the context of KZ’s growth trajectory and cleared a path to execute.

Leverage a national partnership with Target to drive brand visibility, create new audiences and tie into the hi-low fashion trend.

N e t a began its partnership with Kirna Zabête by brokering the first specialty store or licensed designer partnership to sell and distribute Kirna Zabête’s collection for Target, specifically through their own points of distribution: their SoHo boutique and kirnazabete.com. To support a dramatically different price point, we projected Kirna Zabête’s initial P.O. (and actually projected within 1% of its online sell-thru!). As part of our eCommerce strategy to capitalize on the online opportunity, we designed a Magento eCommerce pop-up shop that could be re-purposed for future partnerships such as an upcoming footwear partnership with 9 West. In addition to the contract negotiation and ownership of the project in accord with Target’s brand standards, we produced both Kirna Zabête’s street-style photo shoot and their 1st model-based ecommerce product shoot.

As part of our omnichannel strategy to maximize visibility and the 6B media impressions anticipated for Target’s marketing dollars into the partnership, neta created the first ever layover email name capture form to fully capitalize on TV advertising and the back cover of the September issue of Vogue.  Once we had captured more than 8,000 new email addresses supporting the lower price point and broader fashion base versus KZ’s luxury clientele, we tailored KZ’s email marketing templates to support the new hi-low customer and merchandise mix, strengthening conversion metrics along the way.

From national pop-ups to growing a physical store footprint +233%.

Shortly following the success of the Target launch, neta + Kirna Zabête quickly shifted focus to imagining and preparing for the next era of Kirna Zabête. This work together included strategic planning and refining a business plan that would position KZ’s client approach, as well as, position them for a capital raise and buying infrastructure that would prepare for a move from the 3,000 ft² SoHo storefront they’d called home for 14 years to their new 10,000 ft² digs down the street on Broome and Greene. An evaluation of KZ’s clientele provided a 1-page ‘pro forma’ from which to manage the business on an on-going basis, through the lens of an omnichannel view in the eyes of the KZ client.

It didn’t stop here. We also provided guidance in real estate space evaluations, interior mood board inspiration, pop-up shop strategies with bloggers, influencers and strategic online distribution such as Far Fetch that doubled the kirnazabete.com business within 1 year. Then it was time to help KZ understand their human resource structure that would support this new growth; whereby we have continued to help ‘man and operate’ the online side of the business ever since we met the lovely ladies of Kirna Zabête.

Our Results

Directly from the mouth of Zabête herself, ”Everything has changed – more designers, more employees, more sales, more press, more clients. Everything is just 6 floors up, an elevated, expanded business; image-wise, volume-wise and work-wise.”

• +43% revenue growth (online + store) within 12 months of strategic re-positioning
• With Target partnership achieved highest day of kirnazabete.com sales ever (within 1% of projection)
• Email list grew +33% in 6 weeks
• Positioned physical store footprint growth +233% (from 3,000 ft² to 10,000 ft²)
• Doubled kirnazabete.com’s revenue within 12 months