Former Victoria’s Secret CEO joins Clovia as adviser

Sharen Jester Turney spent around 20 years at Victoria’s secret.

Women's innerwear e-tailer Clovia has appointed Victoria's Secret former chief executive and president Sharen Jester Turney as an adviser.

Turney, who spent nearly two decades at the global lingerie brand, serves as a board member and adviser to several global retail and technology brands and philanthropic organisations. Some of the names include London-based Marks and Spencer, Gloria Jeans in Russia, Cosmo Lady in China, Sweden-based global brand Happy Socks, Alliance Data  and NewStore Omnichannel platform, in the US.

"The most important thing is that you have to decide what your brand stands for. The brand has to continue to stay relevant and change with time without giving up core principles and values," Turney told Moneycontrol, stressing on the importance of omni-channel strategy for retail companies.

"You need to have a little bit of both... if you are not a strong digital player today, you will not survive."

She will help Clovia across functions of business strategy, category expansion, market insights, strengthening of brand positioning and experience and international expansion.

The company last announced a $4 million pre-Series C round in December led by a clutch of investors, including Golden Birch Investments and SheCapital Venture Fund.

"Clovia’s intent of addressing all body shapes and sizes across categories and the most intimate requirements of customers across metros to Tier 2 and 3 towns is awe-inspiring. Their zeal and constant innovation in technology and product expansion will soon help them in expanding their footprint to the International market," Turney added.

Clovia competes with Zivame and Nykaa besides some horizontal players.

“As Clovia continues to scale the business to the next level, we will benefit exponentially from Sharen’s rich experience of building products, customer-centric processes and most importantly, brands that transcend borders," Clovia CEO Pankaj Vermani said.

The company has 14 outlets and plans to double them over the next 12 months. It also has multiple store-in store outlets besides the online presence.

It claims to get more than 60 percent of its revenue from Tier 2-3 cities with an average basket size of Rs 1,100.