Retail Consultant.
D&I Strategist.
About
Nichole Alabi has 10 years of experience consulting on retail merchandising, e-commerce, and product development projects for small and large companies.
If your goal is to reach a new and diverse customer through wholesale, retail, or DTC; luxury or mass market; brick-and-mortar or e-commerce, your goals can be reached in an authentic, inclusive way.
“For a long time, when brands are seeking to reach minority communities, they have focused on messaging only – through PR, social media, and events. But when these communities show up to make a purchase, the product assortment is not geared towards them, their needs, their lives, and their values. An opportunity to convert a customer and create lifelong loyalty is lost when we only focus on the messaging and not the product.”
- Nichole Alabi
Work
The following projects were completed for a variety of clients, ranging from start-ups to non-profit, and major department stores. Scope of work timelines ranges from 4 weeks to 24 months
Bio
Nichole Alabi began her career in fashion retail after leaving Howard University School of Law in 2011. She quickly landed a role at French Connection UK’s U.S. Showroom in men’s wholesale sales working on major department store accounts.
Her natural affinity for product development led to an incredible opportunity at Calvin Klein Collection as one of two merchants on the runway & commercial team for the US and Milan market. In this role, she worked on the women’s Resort 2013, Spring 2013, and Pre-Fall 2013 under the direction of Creative Director Francisco Costa.
In 2013, she made the move to Toronto, Canada as a part of the buying team to launch Marshall’s stores in Canada. By 2014, Nichole created Nichole Alabi Consulting, to use her experience in wholesale account management, buying, merchandising and product development for both luxury and mass market to consult on projects for fashion and retail brands. In this time, she re-launched Brett Johnson Collection and expanded the brand from sneakers and outerwear to a fully made-in-Italy RTW collection.
In 2016, Nichole joined Macy’s Inc. in New York to grow the private brand handbag portfolio including launching a new brand in 2020 and growing the evening bag category to own 20% of the U.S. market.
Currently Nichole is in a strategy role at Amazon, working on a new program focused on empowering minority and small business owners selling on the platform.
Nichole is also a member of the Black Retail Action Group where she mentors diverse summer interns in the retail industry every summer.
She is based in New York, NY and is available for short and long term projects in the U.S. and abroad.