Chico's FAS Accelerates its Digital Transformation

Company Builds on its Position as 'Best Online Company'

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Oct 28, 2020, 13:27 ET

FORT MYERS, Fla., Oct. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Chico's FAS, Inc. (NYSE: CHS), a leading omnichannel specialty retailer for women that was recently named 'Best Online Company' by Newsweek, is accelerating its digital transformation and enhancing its position as a customer-first company. The company is innovating the customer experience to drive greater digital sales across its Chico's, White House Black Market and Soma brands.

In October, the company invested in new strategic relationships with leading technology companies, including Salesforce, Afterpay and Contentstack to modernize and personalize the digital experience for its customers. In the coming months, these collaborations are expected to leverage customer relationships to maximize marketing campaigns; fuel customer acquisition; and establish a single 360-degree view of customer data to create relevant communication and a personalized customer experience.

"Customers' behaviors are changing, and we have developed a customer-first model where the customer is the channel. As we innovate how we seamlessly engage with and serve her, we will continue to undergo continuous optimization of the digital experience across all of our brands to forge deeper relationships, accelerate growth, drive greater profitable sales and gain market share," said Molly Langenstein, Chief Executive Officer and President, Chico's FAS.

One Digital Platform to Create a Seamless Customer Experience

Chico's FAS is collaborating with Salesforce, a leading customer relationship management (CRM) provider, to modernize its marketing platform and deliver personalized customer engagement at scale. As a customer-first and customer-obsessed organization, Chico's FAS is unlocking its ability to deliver lifecycle marketing using predictive intelligence to optimize messaging to each customer across all channels. Chico's FAS is developing a single platform with a unified view of its customers through robust customer data that has been collected for more than three decades. This includes leveraging Chico's FAS loyalty program, which has some of the highest participation rates in retail.

Buy Now, Pay Later

This holiday season, customers will have a new way to shop the company's online boutiques, enjoy her purchases now and pay for them later with interest-free installments. Beginning Oct. 28, customers will have the option to use Afterpay to purchase the latest fashions from all three brands. Chico's FAS commitment to speed and innovation resulted the implementation of this new customer service offering in just eight weeks.

Evolving the Personalized Shopping Experience

For more than three decades, millions of loyal customers have shopped Chico's FAS brands for the one-on-one relationships they've established with stylists and the personalized experience they consistently receive during each interaction. Through Chico's FAS partnership with Contentstack, the company is further building upon its foundation for delivering personalized content to customers based upon personal preference, region and weather.

"As we enhance our position as a customer-first company, organizational agility and speed-to-market are top priorities. Our teams have come together to accelerate critical areas of our digital transformation in months instead of years," said Laura Loughran, Senior Vice President of Technology, Chico's FAS. "As the customer continues to evolve her shopping habits, we will expand our digital services to seamlessly personalize her shopping journey at each of our brands to maximize Customer Lifetime Value. This will be critical to meeting the needs of both our loyal customers today and the increasing number of new customers that join our community."

ABOUT CHICO'S FAS, INC.
Chico's FAS is a Florida-based fashion company founded in 1983 on Sanibel Island, Fla. The Company reinvented the fashion retail experience by creating fashion communities anchored by service, which put the customer at the center of everything we do. As one of the leading fashion retailers in North America, Chico's FAS is a company of three unique brands - Chico's^®, White House Black Market^® and Soma^® - each thriving in their own white space, founded by women, led by women, providing solutions that millions of women say give them confidence and joy.

Our Company has a passion for fashion, and each day, we provide clothing, shoes and accessories, intimate apparel and expert styling in our brick-and-mortar boutiques, digital online boutiques and through Style Connect, the Company's proprietary digital styling tool that enables customers to conveniently shop wherever, whenever and however they prefer.

As of August 1, 2020, the Company operated 1,313 stores in the U.S. and sold merchandise through 69 international franchise locations in Mexico and 2 domestic franchise airport locations. The Company's merchandise is also available at www.chicos.com, www.chicosofftherack.com, www.whbm.com, www.soma.com and www.mytelltale.com as well as through third-party channels.

To learn more about Chico's FAS, visit www.chicosfas.com. The information on our corporate website is not, and shall not be deemed to be, a part of this press release or incorporated into our federal securities law filings.

SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995

This release contains forward-looking statements, which, including without limitation, quotes from Ms. Langenstein and Ms. Loughran, relate to expectations and projections regarding the Company's future performance and may include the words "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "outlook," "project," "should," "strategy," "potential", "confident" and similar terms. These forward-looking statements are based largely on information currently available to our management and on our current expectations, assumptions, plans, estimates, judgments and projections about our business and our industry, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical results or those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although we believe our expectations are based on reasonable estimates and assumptions, there is no assurance that our expectations will, in fact, occur or that our estimates or assumptions will be correct, and we caution investors and all others not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to: the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainties about its depth and duration, including any resurgence, as well as the impacts to economic conditions and consumer behavior, including, among others: any temporary store closures due to government mandates, the extent, availability and effectiveness of any COVID-19 stimulus packages or loan programs, and trends in consumer behavior and spending during and after the pandemic; our ability to successfully implement any alternatives that we pursue including our ability to achieve the cost savings and additional liquidity; government actions and policies; increases in unemployment rates and taxes; local, regional, national and international economic conditions; changes in the general economic and business environment; changes in the general or specialty retail or apparel industries, including the extent of the market demand and overall level of spending for women's private branded clothing and related accessories; the effectiveness of our brand strategies, awareness and marketing programs; the ability to successfully execute and achieve the expected results of our business strategies and particular strategic initiatives (including, but not limited to, driving stronger sales through improved product and marketing; optimizing the customer journey by simplifying, digitizing and extending the Company's unique and personalized service; and offering new ways to shop the company's online boutiques), sales initiatives and multi-channel strategies; customer traffic; our ability to appropriately manage our inventory and allocation processes; our ability to leverage inventory management and targeted promotions; the successful recruitment of leadership and the successful transition of members of our senior management team; changes in the political environment that create consumer uncertainty; the risk that our investments in merchandise or marketing initiatives may not deliver the results we anticipate; significant changes to product import and distribution costs (such as unexpected consolidation in the freight carrier industry, and the ability to remain competitive with customer shipping terms and costs pertaining to product deliveries and returns); new or increased taxes or tariffs that could impact, among other things, our sourcing from foreign suppliers; and significant shifts in consumer behavior. Other risk factors are detailed from time to time in the Company's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Annual Report on Form 10-K and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These factors should be considered in evaluating forward–looking statements contained herein. The Company does not undertake to publicly update or revise its forward-looking statements even if experience or future changes make it clear that projected results expressed or implied in such statements will not be realized.

Media Contact
Pashen Black
Director, Corporate Public Relations
Chico's FAS
239-218-3388
[email protected]

SOURCE Chico's FAS, Inc.