he recent eTail Virtual Summit and Expo 2021, Luciani said there was no blueprint on how to manage teams during the pandemic, but the company decided to go with kindness and gratitude first. “At the end of the day, we were in a great spot, we were an off-price e-commerce, we were employed, and most of all we were healthy. So we had a lot to be grateful for,” she said. “The most important thing through that was really just laughing at the ‘what next’ of it all.” With team members working from home in New York and Boston, Luciana said it was important to her to stay connected with everyone. Having a daily visual check-in with team members was one of the initial changes the company made. “It was a lot, managing Covid, and everyday checking them, seeing them online, hearing from them, knowing how they were doing with all the changes happening, it really was a great time to communicate,” Luciani shared, adding that daily communication is something the team plans to continue even when everyone goes back to the office. From ‘date night’ to ‘self-care’ According to Luciani, Rue Gilt Groupe was able to create a lot of efficiencies and pivot to telling more relevant stories during the pandemic. “My team and I create cross-category sales for both Rue La La and Gilt. In creating, we use products to essentially bring our story to life,” she explained. “In that way we’re more editors than merchandisers. We’re always mindful of each brand’s identity and their members. Essentially the stories of sales we tell revolve around trends and pop culture and celebrity, vacation, everything that influences members’ fashion choices and hopefully brings her joy.” But all that changed in March last year when people worldwide were asked to stay home, practice social distancing and avoid going out unless it was really necessary. “Our business has certainly changed, the way we tell stories changed,” Luciani said. “For me, the question at the top of my mind was, how do I create a shopping escape for our members? Bring them joy in the midst of chaos?” Scrapping the calendar and every upcoming event and changing how they did business were just a few of the processes they had to update during the pandemic. With their studios closed, the company had to reuse creative materials and images to tell new stories. “We did way more with a lot less,” Luciani said. “Most of us took on more responsibilities and we did everything from home. Which meant we really had to be nimble and then, honestly, we had to be even more nimble.” Before Covid, the company’s stories revolved around Rue La La’s Wear to Work stories, Date Night stories, Celeb and Street Style stories, and Gilt was Fashion Week-focused, Getaway shops and Style shops. During the pandemic, Luciani said the team had to start talking about working from home and what customers were wearing. Self-care became a very big part of their members’ shopping preferences, as well as gift-giving. “Our members were really not going anywhere, so we really had to reassess and our goal was to meet the customer where they were,” she said. The pandemic had a negative impact on the company’s apparel and footwear segments in particular, but according to Luciani, challenging times force businesses to adapt, which is what Rue Gilt Group has done. “As we look ahead and plan ahead, we’re already seeing these businesses pick up,” she said.