Australian department store Myer’s executive chair Olivia Wirth gave her first full-year earnings report to investors on Friday since officially stepping into the top job at the department store chain on June 4.Wirth spoke with Inside Retail after the call, and if one thing is clear her vision is “laser-focused on improving Myer’s profitability, performance and shareholder returns”.The comprehensive strategic review that she commissioned in March to increase Myer’s profitability and drive sustainable earnings growth has already resulted in the board reversing a previous decision to sell off its house brands Sass & Bide, Marcs and David Lawrence, and exploring a potential merger with Premier Investment’s Apparel Brands.Wirth’s objective is to identify opportunities to “deliver a step-change in Myer’s market position and generate strategic and financial benefits”. Here, she explains her plans to ramp up the retailer’s online presence and customer experience in greater detail.Inside Retail: On the investor call, you mentioned the reimagining of Myer’s e-commerce experience. What does that look like for you? And how’s that going to convert that 65 per cent of in-store only customers to shop online?Olivia Wirth: It’s a great question, and obviously, you’d be very familiar with our business and the importance of online to many retailers, not only in Australia, but overseas.Our [e-commerce] strategy is live and has been improving for some time. Part of our strategic review will be looking at areas that we believe are the core pillars of growth for us, and what the potential can be in five to seven years. E-commerce and omnichannel are going to be very important for us.We’re not going into any great detail beyond that. That’s going to be part of our presentation, come our strategic review.But what I would say is a number of things about why we have a right to play [in the online space]. Firstly, our Myer One program is a large program with 10.4 million members and 4.4 million active members [who have shopped in the past 12 months] which is up 4.8 per cent [year on year].We’ve got a considerable understanding of what our customers want, and of the ways we can reach them online, that gives us the capacity to be able to drive our e-commerce capability. Secondly, we think that there is further growth; online currently makes up around 20 per cent of all our sales. We do think that there is an opportunity for us to be ambitious around where more growth can come from. For me, it’s about the combination of the data asset that you have with a high-functioning e-commerce site, and working with your partners to make sure that you can drive the right behaviour.And the right behaviour for us is essentially being able to give our customers the choice of where they want to purchase – whether that’s on social or e-commerce.It’s all about optionality and giving them a multi-channel offer.IR: Myer has come away from heavily relying on discounting strategies. What role do they play in the business’s current strategy?OW: The reality for us is, promotion always plays a role in retail and we recognise that, and promotion will always be there.But we also indicated in our update today that we believe there are smarter and different ways for us to be thinking about promotion by making sure the promotions we offer are more relevant to our customers. And we can do that because we know our customers.We’re asking how do we get smarter about the right promotions targeting the right people? And I think it’s also really important that as we evolve the offer, our promotions will need to evolve as well.I think we’re on the journey, I wouldn’t say that we’re there yet in terms of moving away from heavy promotions.IR: What additional board decisions do you foresee coming from the strategic review? OW: The way we’re thinking about strategic review is that we started it in March and it did involve a deep research piece of understanding our customers as well.There are a number of component parts that we’ve been considering along the way, and where we’ve identified opportunities, we want to move quickly on them.This is broad – it’s around the customer, product, experience, loyalty, and how we do business, and how we take our products to market online and in-store. So it is quite broad.There will be a number of outputs of this strategic review. It’s just a little bit premature to indicate what they will be, and we’ll do that towards the back end of this year, when we’ll have an update on the strategic review and we’ll take this to market then.All I will say is it is looking at every aspect of our business and making sure that we can orientate sustainable growth and make sure that the experience we have online and in-store is a great one for our customers and also a great one for our people.IR: You reported that Myer added 706,000 new members in FY24, with 50 per cent of these new the members in the under–35-year-old demographic. Who is the Myer customer now, and how has this changed?OW: Myer today has a broad offering across all categories, and it really is an offering for all Australians.Our consumer demographic is a broad cross-section of the Australian community.We have a very loyal customer base, and the opportunity for us is in exploring how we keep them loyal and rusted on and even more engaged.And then how do we encourage new interest into the Myer One loyalty program?With the 50 per cent of new members in FY24 under 35, it’s about how do we make them engaged?How do we have the right products and offering that make sure that they’re engaged in the business? And in order to do that, it really is an opportunity for us to rethink what the loyalty ecosystem is.So, who are the partners that are partnering with Myer One? What are the offerings that we have in-store? What are the offerings we have online? And how do we really build out this Myer One ecosystem? Because we think there is a significant opportunity there, and it will allow us to engage broadly across all guest demographics, not just the traditional Myer customer.IR: What is the career legacy you hope to leave? OW: Currently, I’m very focused on making sure we deliver on a great customer experience, that we can deliver sustainable growth, which ultimately delivers for our shareholders, and that we provide a great workplace for our people to come to work to every day.I’m very much focused on strengthening Myer, on making sure we can improve performance, making sure we can improve profitability and ultimately deliver shareholder return.IR: Myer is undergoing a bricks-and-mortar rejuvenation. What are you looking for in terms of the new Brisbane CBD store’s location? And how are the rejuvenated preexisting stores facilitating a better omnichannel customer experience?OW: I’m not going to get into any form of speculation, only that obviously we are rethinking what our in-store experience should be.Therefore, how we better use the space that we have, how we drive productivity, but also, how we bring a different customer experience in-store.It’s on the list, it’s work in progress, and we will look forward to updating the market as part of the strategic review later in the year.