David’s Bridal CEO Kelly Cook on Betting Big and Knowing When Not To

Narrator 0:06

This is Monday Conversation, a PYMNTS podcast. Karen Webster sits down with the visionaries behind the trends for the story of shaping what's next in payments and commerce. In this episode, PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster sits down with David's Bridal CEO, Kelly Cook, to talk about the push to reinvent David's Bridal.

Karen Webster 0:37

Over the years, I've had the opportunity to speak with Kelly Cook, the CEO of David's Bridal, otherwise known as David's Today, about the many moves that she's made in the space, her devotion to AI with her IELT to algorithm initiative across the business, and some of the bold strokes that she has acted on to expand beyond the bride to all occasion dressing, to expand beyond her virtual and physical storefronts to the Amazon marketplace, to go wholesale and to really reinvigorate the brand as well as the women and the families that she touches. So today I'm here to talk about her philosophy for making those big bets and bold moves. And I look forward to hearing all about what inspires her, the results of some of these big bets and bold moves in the market, and how she gets her inspiration for the things that she does every day. Hey Kelly, it's so great to see you again. And I'm looking forward to this conversation, very different conversation than the ones we've had in the past. It's really all about how you drive strategy getting inside your head around the big bets and the bold moves that you've made at David's. So I'm excited to have that conversation.

Kelly Cook 1:54

I hope you are too. I am. I'm looking forward to it, Karen. Thank you so much.

Karen Webster 1:59

So let's start with sort of the basic brass tacks. You have done so many things, which we'll talk about in detail. Is the big bets philosophy a strategy of yours, or is that just who you are as a person and an executive?

Kelly Cook 2:16

I think it's more the latter. I think my entire career I have been drawn to taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary. And I think embedded in that, you know, requires some some big bets, some leaps of faith. You know, it it we take big bets because playing it safe is just procrastination in a suit. You know, and if it feels uncomfortable, it probably belongs on a couch and not on a strategy deck. You know, and so I think it's part of a little bit who I'm wired, you know. I I think I'm drawn to that because I'm I'm drawn to large-scale transformation. And I think embedded in that, you have to take big bets.

Karen Webster 2:59

Well, it also suggests that you have a lot of conviction and confidence in moving forward. And I know that those things are driven by data and not just sort of what you decide to wake up on one morning and do. Although instincts probably play a big part in how you decide to execute some of the big bets and bold moves that you've made.

Kelly Cook 3:22

Yeah, I mean, it's true. So if you I mean, if you think about David's just in general, you know, we it was the burning platform when I took over CEO is that the company had filed for restructuring in 19 and it had filed in 23. I mean, that's two times in four years. So something transformative needed to happen to be able to create a you know a thriving brand, not just a surviving one. And, you know, when we sat down to build out IELTA algorithm, you know, the I think the team was feeling like they were in a pretty dark place. And I, you know, I told them, I said, look, sometimes when you're in a dark place, you think you've been buried, but you've actually been planted, you know, and it's the it's the it's it's a mindset shift that the art of the possible is that exactly possible, you know, and so it was a it was a really thrilling time to sit down with the management team and build out out to algorithm and come out uh on the other side going, wow, this is extraordinary. This is and we knew we needed revolutionary change and not evolutionary, right?

Karen Webster 4:26

Right. So so planting is a it's actually a really good um philosophy. That's a good you should make that into a cup or something, like a plant.

Kelly Cook 4:35

You need to do that into a cup and send it to you.

Karen Webster 4:40

Okay, that's a deal. That's a deal. So let me let's unpack some of these big bets. So David's, most people may be familiar with David's bridal, has gone definitely beyond the bride. So what's interesting about that is 90% of all brides make their first stop your store or site. I mean, so you've got the market of the brides who are interested in getting their big day organized with you. But you decided to go beyond the bride to all occasion dressing. And that's a different audience, potentially. It's a very different strategy, it's different merchandising, all of the above. Some people may say, why didn't you just stick with the niche? Because you can build out from the niche, go deep in the vertical you have. Why expand? What did you see that others didn't and gave you the conviction to making that big move?

Kelly Cook 5:38

Oh, love that. It's really quite simple, Karen. The the conviction came from data. And it really surfaced when we when we got into the wedding planning process, and we really, really went deep into that. It it, you know, the planning when a girl gets proposed to, she's happy for about 15 minutes and crying, hugging everybody, and then after 15 minutes, panic sets in because she's got to plan this massive wedding. And it takes literally over her life for 18 months, and there's 300 tasks associated with the wedding planning journey, but it wasn't just that. When we drill down, she's buying 18 outfits.

Karen Webster 6:20

That's incredible.

Kelly Cook 6:22

Yeah, 18. And I remember when I got married, I was like, oh my, we were so poor back then. I think my dress cost $19 on a clearance rack seats, you know. But it's it's not like that now, and it's magnificent. Like it's it's absolutely magnificent to see um the evolution of the of the wedding experience for brides. But that there were 18 outfits, and we're like, we've only been focusing on a gown. And then we found out there's you know, a bachelorette party outfit. There's an outfit she wears the day of the wedding that she's getting dressed in. Most brides now are changing out of the ceremony gown into a reception gown. And so we needed to serve her in all of those different areas, and it wasn't just the bride, her bridesmaids, her bride's bride also have seven outfits. So we needed to really expand our offering and ensure that we were serving all of their apparel, footwear, and product needs for the whole journey.

Karen Webster 7:20

Well, it also extends beyond that because that's the bridal experience. But then there's the, you know, now we're into graduation season, and there are bridal showers, there are baby showers, there's like the whole lifestyle around getting dressed for special occasions. And one of the things that you said the last time we spoke was that the woman who buys her bridesmaid's dress at David's will come back and buy more things from us, presumably maybe her bridal gown, but these other occasions as well. Is that what you're seeing?

Kelly Cook 7:55

It is, Karen. We absolutely are seeing that. And it's not just it's not just bridesmaids, you know. You brought up prom, I believe, and you know, it was the same thing there as well. So what what was interesting, let me just tell you how we started to expand in prom. It actually, it actually came from moms. Um, moms knew about David's mom moms had the the brand recognition of us being sort of an all-in sort of occasion uh destination as related to mother, the bridegowns and flower girl and all of the wedding-oriented uh brand uh activities. But what was interesting is that moms, the range of mom is very, very wide. You know, a mom can be, you know, sort of in the ages of you know 38-ish, you know, up to 58, 60. And what we realized is is that mom is an attitude and not an age. And so there is a wide range of silhouettes and styles from lots of coverage to fitted to not fitted to sequence to elegant to modern. And what we realized is that we were missing, we were missing a sort of youngish attitude mom that wanted something a little bit sexier and a little bit more fit. And what we realized is that sort of silhouette started to shape itself into proms, formals, winter formals, you know, college against sorority events, debutante balls. And then it just it began from there. So it sort of started with the dress, and then it sort of sort of uh anchored there out to other uses, such as prom and and all those other events.

Karen Webster 9:41

So I would imagine that that so much of your base becomes sort of a referral network inside their network, but then other people say, Where did you get that dress? Oh, David's, oh, I can get that dress at David's. I mean, so it's also maybe they're the ambassador, but they're also educating people in their network that you are an alternative to where they might think about going to get those those dresses for those occasions.

Kelly Cook 10:07

100% right, Karen. I mean, I will tell you that I think that's one of my favorite parts about this job is that it doesn't matter where I am, uh, the grocery store, church, an event, standing, you know, walking a dog. It doesn't matter. As soon as I say I work at David's bridle, they're like, oh, my cousin got her dress and taste. Oh, my daughter got her dress and things, my grandma. I mean, it is the best job ever because you're making them feel so good about a memory. I mean, I've I I I feel bad for like a dentist. Oh, I got my root canal down here. You know, I don't, I don't, it's like such an addictive business, you know, and so happy, and all the memories are happy and all the memories are joyful. And it that like that feeds our business. It feeds who we are, it feeds how we come to work every day. It's just it's a it's absolutely incredible.

Karen Webster 11:08

Right, you're right. It's a happy, it's a happy occasion. It's can be a stressful occasion, but it's a happy occasion. It's memories, people taking pictures, and the pictures that go everywhere. Last forever, they last forever, they last forever. Let's talk about so we talked about Beyond the Bride. Let's talk about beyond the store. So you've recently set up a storefront on Amazon. Some may say, okay, that's little fox in the hen house kind of thesis. Not sure it's good for us. Why is it good for David's?

Kelly Cook 11:38

So I I love this question, Karen. And there's a reason why. One of the major shifts of where David's was basically for 75 years, um, to the shift we made with IELTA algorithm, is that we no longer have competition. That right there is a fundamental shift. And let me explain why. We own our own joint venture. So we have 46 design and production centers all over the world, and they allow us to bring any type of dress, any type of gown to the market, whether it is a uh price point at $99 or $10,000 to $20,000. We have gowns right now that we produce that are in the price range of $10,000 to $15,000. What that, what having that in our portfolio that we owned enables us to change our product architecture to say, wait a minute, we don't have to just sell gowns at David's. We can produce and sell gowns and dresses for anyone at any point in her journey where she's buying, it doesn't have to be us. And when we changed our mindset to that, to say, if you take just bridal, we want to serve and sell to every bride in the world, regardless of whether she buys it directly from us or not. That was the shift. And when you take those, when you change your mindset like that, then everybody that is selling a dress to a bride becomes a partner. So we built our strategy around, we launched DoorDash. By the way, Vegas is the number one city for DoorDash wedding dresses. You probably wouldn't figure that out, you know. Uh, but then we sold on Amazon, we launched on Walmart. We are launching three more marketplaces within the next 60 to 90 days. We have a David's bridal store inside Liverpool in Mexico City. You know, we we our our job was to sell, you know, we're selling boutiques now with wholesale.

Karen Webster 13:53

Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that next. Yeah. So you're basically where the customer is buying a bridal gown or an all occasion, a dress for any occasion.

Kelly Cook 14:03

Yes, ma'am, that is exactly right. And that has enabled us to grow in an asset-light way, and that was one of the tenets of the IELTA algorithm. Grow in an asset-light way, period. And so that's what the transformation is doing to our company, and that's why when we look out to our profit targets and our plans for this year, I mean, it's such a dramatic shift from where the company has been because it's growing in an asset-light way. So we're I'm so proud of the team and the progress.

Karen Webster 14:34

It's about it's about distribution at this point because you have the product, it's getting it into those channels. And and and what did the so through the wholesale relationship and all the what 7,000 or so boutiques that sell bridal dresses, what did they think when you knocked on their door? Were they were they like, oh, where have you been? I can't believe that it's taken us so long to do a deal, or was there more of a sales process that needed to happen?

Kelly Cook 15:00

Yeah, good question. So, I mean, obviously the reason why we went into wholesale is because we want to be the engine in everybody's car, not just be a car driving down the road, right? And that's what the JV allowed us to do. And I would say honestly, the reception has been, you know, a little all over the place, I think. Yeah, you know, with wholesale. We already were signing wholesale deals, Karen, to be honest, before we announced it. Um, we wanted to understand if there was a market need and there was a market response. And you know, the what's amazing and extraordinary, um, and I I love this stat. Our wholesale partners are telling us right now, on average, we're saving them around 20 points of margin. You're kidding. No, no, and the reason if you here's the reason why that is happening. David's is is massive. You know, we have a massive share, and we sell millions of units a year from all our different categories, right? And our joint venture is producing all of those goods for us and designing them and producing them with all this luxury and and exclusivity and craftsmanship and all of that, and that gives us scale. And because we have the scale, it keeps cost efficient, and we are passing all of that efficiency on to our wholesale partners, we're just passing it right on to them, and that's where they're like, oh my gosh. And then when you take it a step further, that we go from size double zero to size 30, which is a challenge in some areas of luxury. And you say, Oh, and by the way, we can get it to you quickly in nine weeks, which most people wait six months. Like, it's just everything our wholesale partners are telling us they need that's what we're that's what we're delivering. And we have our first wholesale show in New York next week for bridal fashion week at one fine day. And we're we're you know, we're already booked up with appointments. So we're so excited to bring this. And I think the I think the hurdle to your point, transparently, Karen, was them understanding we're not the enemy, you know, we're the partner, you know, and we win. If you sell a bridal gown, you take her, you know, we'll give you the gown, we're all good, you know. And it it's a little bit of a, you know, it's a mindset shift, but it is working.

Karen Webster 17:30

Yeah. Well, I mean, scale is the is the is the word, right? I mean, you have the scale. You're buying sequins by the by the pound. You're buying feathers by the pound. I mean, so so you've got these. I mean, you're I was gonna wear feathers today, actually, but it's not quite feather weather in Boston yet. But um, but I I mean that is the point. And I think you know, your stat about the margin uh lift is incredible because it's very tough in any retail environment to kind of get that kind of margin improvement. And and that's uh that that that's that's wonderful. I I want to go to the alda algorithm thesis because that is fundamental to your strategy. And you've been talking about AI reshaping the customer experience long before AI has been kind of a part of the everyday narrative around AI as being so transformative. But but with AI, what was the outcome you were trying to deliver? And and I want to qualify that by saying, you know, there's AI that seems generic, and then there's AI that really is contextualized to the individual. How are you getting the latter and not the former with your strategy?

Kelly Cook 18:46

So that is such an awesome question. You're the first person that's ever presented AI, an AI question like that. So I commend you for that. We we had four problem statements as it related to AI that we were trying to leverage AI for. One was for the bride. Um, this 300-task planning system is a nightmare for her. So we needed to de-stress that, and we needed to provide an agentic AI sort of concierge, if you will, that is available to her at all times of the day, 24/7, that she can manipulate and change wedding tasks based on whatever's changing in her environment. So we we needed to de-stress planning. The second problem statement was you know, to be able to do the transformation that we're doing at David's, we have a substantial amount of work that's going on, you know, process changing, uh, teams are changing, KPIs are changing, uh, projects are, you know, really very tightly managed. We needed a better sort of internal tool to do that. The third thing we needed to look at AI for is we just had to analyze data differently and quickly turning it, turn it into an insight and then quickly turn it into an action and then read the result. That process was taking way too long, and it was sort of in a legacy environment, if you will, Karen. So we needed to, it needed to keep up with the progress that we had with ILTA algorithm. And the fourth problem statement was we just needed 100x content. Like we needed a lot of content in the market. And so what we've done is we've taken an AI approach to each one of those. You know, obviously we launched a Gentec AI Perl Planner in the summer. Our users on that platform are exceeding our expectations. Uh, so we feel awesome about that. Um, we are we are we've got AI tools that are managing our content now. We use AI for subject line and copy and digital media. Uh, we've got AI and product pages for videos, but I will tell you a very, very funny story about that going poorly. You know, you know, if you go too fast with AI, you gotta whoa back up a little bit. So uh I told this story recently somebody else, but I was uh it was like a year ago, and I was uh on my couch on a Friday night. It was like eight o'clock. I turned on my, you know, turned off my laptop and I was having a glass of wine and opened up my phone. I was on TikTok and I came across this beautiful video. I knew it was our product and our our voice and everything. I was like, oh man, look at team go to you go. So beautiful. And then at the end of the video, Karen, it said David's bridal, B-R-I-D-L-E. After I lost 10 years of my life, you know, I called the CMO at the time. And look in their defense, though, but this is how this is how it sort of plays out in real life. They were going down the AI path, they were trying, they had put something in the test. It worked, but because it was 100% AI, it had bypassed the QA process that we usually do before the market. They didn't catch it, you know. And I'm like, okay, no problem. But it was the company's name. You know, could it have been anything else? But but that but look, you from my perspective, I was thrilled. I was thrilled that they were pushing it, they were taking a bet, they were taking a chance, they were moving quickly. Sometimes we're gonna fall forward uh on our face, but I'd rather fall forward going fast than fall backwards on our tushy going slow. So I I think that I I was proud of the team.

Karen Webster 22:39

So Kelly, when you think about the planner, and you think about that almost as a platform for other third parties to participate and to monetize your reach. I mean, is that part of a strategy as well that you're contemplating?

Kelly Cook 22:54

It it absolutely is. So we are actually in discussions right now to white label agentic prolay planner for another industry. And that's because the the the the LLMs that are the underpinning of how the knowledge base works relative to the agentic AI is is repeatable, meaning if the data are there, then you can translate that to another industry. And we're very, very excited about it. You know, on our radar, we have Cincinnata planned for the end of this year. And, you know, that is a $27 billion business. We love to celebrate with our our Hispanic 15-year-old beautiful women, girls, I guess rather, ladies, let me say it that way. And so that is that is as big as an event as a wedding. I mean, they are if you've never been, they are absolutely incredible, so full of joy and excitement. So that's a whole nother way. But yes, the the um the white label opportunity for the Pearl ecosystem is 100% on our radar right now.

Karen Webster 24:01

Well, Kelly, always a pleasure talking to you. It's really great to get an understanding of how you make decisions and a little bit more under the hood of how you've navigated David's transformation in such a significant way and obviously have delivered so much success as a result of your focus. I love the fact that there aren't any rules. I mean, the only rule is that there isn't any. And I think that's um not always easy to say as the CEO, but it does inspire the best of people, and then you can obviously um put the parameters around what's necessary to get things to market. Always a pleasure. Thanks so much for your time.

Kelly Cook 24:39

Thank you so much, Karen. Always a pleasure. Can't wait to see you soon.

Karen Webster 24:42

See you soon, but by now.

Narrator 24:48

That's it for this episode of the PYMNTS Podcast: the thinking behind the doing. Conversations with the leaders transforming payments, commerce, and the digital economy. Be sure to follow us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. You can also catch every episode PYMNTS .com/ podcasts. Thanks for listening.