Brie Olson, CEO of Pacsun, just lately mentioned how they’re working with creators long-term on TikTok to achieve followers digitally.
The style retailer’s success with TikTok dates to November 2023 in a giant manner when its most viral product, the Casey Jean in Astrid wash, offered 11,000 pairs in 48 hours earlier than Black Friday. The model estimates that the second led to over $20 million in gross sales from TikTok alone.
The jean’s success was pushed by a video from creator Lyla Biggs, a member of Pacsun’s TikTok affiliate creator program, whose viral video on the low rise jean was shared together with her 5,000 followers.
Regardless of expectations for an unsure second half of this 12 months, Olson mentioned she doesn’t count on “giant shifts,” in how the corporate works with creators, a channel that the corporate views as invaluable to attach with customers. It is usually not bracing for giant adjustments to its technique on TikTok, which the corporate sees not simply as a media channel, however a income driver.
“Now we have energy in digital, we’re one of many prime outlets on TikTok Store, and we’re seeing shifts across the creator economic system and social commerce,” Olson mentioned. “On the identical time, we’re seeing double-digit site visitors in our shops and an actual want to return to shops and have experiences.”
Olson and Digiday spoke on the Cannes Lions Worldwide Competition of Creativity 2025. The next interview has been edited for size and readability.
How have been you eager about participating with customers throughout social, notably whether or not TikTok does in the end face a ban within the U.S.?
A lot of the customers are multi-platform and multi-touch, and so we’ve so many various methods to achieve them. It’s most essential to indicate up the place our shopper is. If there needs to be a TikTok ban, there might be a brand new, rising platform. Shoppers will certainly nonetheless discover locations to specific themselves. It’s essential to have interaction with them authentically in these areas.
How has working with creators developed for you as a model?
Creators have been an essential a part of our collaborative content material creation course of for the final decade, or longer. So I completely suppose that their voices are an extremely essential and related piece. Particularly now, greater than ever earlier than, that push in direction of actually together with your neighborhood within the dialog, having them lead the dialog, is more and more vital. Creator alternatives have gotten more and more essential.
How are present financial headwinds and the geopolitical cycle that we’re in affecting you as a model?
Now we have had a very nice acceleration within the final two years. Up to now, shopper spending has been constructive and all indications have been good when it comes to model fairness and model well being and the engagement from the buyer and our corresponding gross sales.
Clearly, there’s lots of trepidation with what’s taking place on this planet and we’re taking a extra cautious strategy to the again half of the 12 months. We’re going to proceed to journey on the momentum of the previous and simply proceed to observe stock very rigorously.
What does a cautious strategy seem like for you?
I feel it’s actually learn and react when it comes to stock. We’re virtually in our again to high school cycle, however extra for This autumn to see if there are broader impacts to the economic system that may cycle into some variations we’re experiencing proper now when it comes to gross sales. Gross sales proceed to be very robust within the first and second quarter.
How do you see AI impacting your buyer journey?
AI plus human capital is remodeling the trade as we all know it and we’re making use of it throughout each space of our investments. The realm that we’ve carried out the least quantity of exploration to this point, however I’m not saying that we received’t discover it down the road is product design and the extra artistic operate.
I feel there’s lots of efficiencies that may come out of correct use, however to this point, the instruments that we used — or explored — have had fairly combined outcomes. However positively when it comes to planning, allocations, even retailer administration, it’s a transformational mechanism for shifting us into the long run.
Once you speak about combined outcomes, have you ever had unfavourable outcomes — or is there something that you just have been shocked by with AI?
Throughout all of our totally different capabilities, we’ve acquired 20 to 30 various kinds of checks taking place or explorations in AI, whether or not the groups are discovering that it’s doing what it was presupposed to do or one thing totally different. We’re actually in a studying cycle, and there was some good adoption in sure areas and there’s been areas the place, ‘hey that wasn’t what we have been anticipating’ and so then we drop it. Now we have an 18 month roadmap for AI and we’re it in that manner. And we’re going to proceed to check and be taught, and for those who’re seeing the whole lot succeed, then you definitely’re most likely not pushing laborious sufficient.
Do you have got issues over how Google AI Overviews may influence site visitors to your model websites?
It actually will influence over time. And it’s one thing we simply must be very watchful for and reactive to.
