Charlotte Russe // Apparel

Charlotte Russe was my first retail love. I was always a Charlotte girly growing up: colorful, feminine, sparkly, etc… so when I became old enough to legally work I knew I wanted to work for this company. I started at Charlotte Russe in Concord, NH in 2009, as a Per-Diem Sales Associate for the Holidays. Very quickly I was deemed the Shoe Specialist, as my passion for process, organization, teaching, training, + Visual Merchandising became overtly apparent. I wore that title proudly and loved every minute of bettering the operations of the store while sharing my passion for visual + process with the team. When the Holiday season was over, I advocated for staying on as a regular associate and not just seasonal, and my store manager agreed that it was the perfect fit for me to stay! I stayed working in that location for a handful of years, while I attended College. During that time, I took on more of the Visual Merchandising lead role for the store, as this was my passion. Due to my enthusiasm, and skill within Visual Merchandising, I was sent to many of our other store locations within the District to help other teams (NH, MA, + ME) set their floorsets and teach/train other associates on Visual Merchandising fundamentals. I did end up moving to Boston for the second half of my college career, and during that time I transferred to the Cambridge, MA location. After college, I transferred back to the Concord location. I worked my way up to Store Manager, where I ended up flipping 3 different locations. All 3 stores I managed needed help turning all metrics from the red to the green. First up was the Kittery, ME outlet location. Because this was a summer getaway destination, long-term staffing was a challenge, and this meant a lot of turnover. I was able to build a successful, tenured team in this location and get all metrics in the green: ADS, UPT, Conversion, etc, as well as reduce Shrink and improve both Window Displays + Visual Merchandising standards + execution. Once I got Kittery in a good place, I was transferred back to my old home store: Concord, NH. Finally being the Store Manager of this location was a bucket list item for me, because the space had so much potential. Unfortunately the leader prior to me did not follow any of the company policies, so I had my hands full to get the store operationalized + weed out the team members who were taking advantage of previous leadership. It took longer to get this store up and running smoothly, with lots of new hires and necessary trainings. Over time, we got there… the store was fully staffed and again all metrics were in the green! During this time, I was also then stretched beyond my core role as a Store Manager. I became the District Visual Manager as well. I was in charge of leading all Visual Merchandising emails + calls for the District, setting the standards for our District’s execution expectations, sending out set guidelines + additional notes for successful Window + Floorset prepping, providing teams with back-up solutions for missing inventory and issues with sets, and visiting all other store locations each month to train in new team members and managers on Visual Merchandising expectations. I did both of these roles for a while, and then I was transferred again to my 3rd and final store in Newington, NH. This location was in college town, so staffing was a nightmare. No one wanted to work, they all just wanted to get a discount on the clothes they were going to wear to the next college party, and turnover was excruciatingly high. This store also had the worst metrics and worst theft in the District. Out of the 3 stores I had to fix, this one was the biggest challenge. I did get the team figured out, weeding out the one that were stealing + improving operations and reducing shrink. I was also able to get the store caught up on markdowns that they were months behind on, and overall cleanliness improved immensely. We had a team that was trained, and Visual Merchandising improvements, which lead to better Customer Service, Guest Engagement, better Conversion rates, and improved KPIs.

Back during this period in my career, I was young and not as aware of the idea of capturing images for a Portfolio. So, below you will see a handful of image examples of Visual Merchandising, Mannequin Styling, Shoes, Accessories, + Window Displays, that I could find from my time with Charlotte Russe. However, they are not the best photos or representations of all of the work done with this company across the 3 different locations. But, I am still proud of the work!