Showcase day 4

Starting from the Ground Up 

- Moda Operandi & StockX panel coverage

by Cassidy Crockett 

In the front of the room during Thursday’s showcase, sat April Hennig, Chief Merchandising Officer at Moda Operandi, and Josh Sklar, Senior Product Manager at StockX. Moda Operandi, a platform known for bridging the gap between luxury and consumers, was the trailblazer of its sector, allowing a certain market of customers, those that invest in luxury and runway pieces, to pre-order items before they even hit stores. In contrast, StockX is a market for buying and selling streetwear, with items ranging from shoes to apparel. Although both brands and positions are quite different, both of these speakers shared one thing in common: starting from the ground up. 

Beneath the three word title that April Hennig holds at Moda Operandi, is a much larger role than one might think. Throughout her day she manages the buying, fashion direction, planning, creative content, editorial team, social media, PR and brand strategy. Which she explains is not typical for a CMO, but she is so talented she has managed to do it all. 

There really is no day to day for April. She claims that once you're at her level, it is really all about managing all of these different units and making sure you are going in the right direction. With a portfolio of over 700 brands, April spends a lot of time managing relationships with her top brands along with constantly scouting for new brands. “We are doing a million initiatives at once. I really just have to manage all of those pieces, haha.” 

For Josh, his merchandising team falls under their marketing team. He explains that this difference is because StockX does not actually own any of its products, as StockX is simply a marketplace for sellers. The main goal of the merchandising for them is how to get the right products in front of the right customers at the right time. This includes what products to show on home pages, what products should have a campaign, how should they be advertised, etc. Josh works extremely closely with the merchandising team, as he makes their ideas come to life on their website. 

Josh’s day to day requires him to work with many different stakeholders such as merchandising and customer service to name a few. He explains that one of the biggest parts of his job is to work with the engineers to build the websites. If a merchandising team wants to show a video of a sneaker on the site, it's Josh’s job to work with the designers and engineers to decide all the little details around where and how it should be placed in the website so that it serves the ultimate customer experience.

After the entire interview process of April and Josh each explaining their various roles in the company and the secret behind the scenes of what it really means to be a high level executive in a fashion company, both offered up a simple piece of advice that seemed to match a lot of advice given by the speakers all week. Networking. The power that communication and friendship holds between young students and career professionals. You never know what could happen. As April said, “Apply for the job, even if you don’t match the credentials. It’s usually just a copy of an industry standard job outline.”