A decade ago, Stitch Fix was a hot tech company promising to revolutionize how consumers shopped for clothes. Its personal shopping subscription service used algorithms to determine customers’ preferences with enough accuracy that they would keep most of the items shipped to them in a so-called fix.
But its profile as a tech-driven disruptor of apparel retail couldn’t sustain a business ultimately undermined by weak merchandising fundamentals. Now its CEO Matt Baer, three years into his tenure, is using his big-box and department store background to reset Stitch Fix—and prove its pioneering model still works when rooted in retail 101.
“Transformations take time, and we had the appropriate amount of patience through this process because the goal is for durable profitable growth,” Baer told Fortune this week.
The rise, and unraveling, of a data-driven bet
Stitch Fix was founded in 2011 by retail consultant Katrina Lake. (She still serves as chair of the company’s board.) Her idea was to mix data and remote personal stylists to customize a wardrobe suited to a shopper’s unique tastes and send them the clothes in a subscription box.
