ed to be the peak, and the brand found itself rapidly shrinking after this point.  Annual revenue hit a low of $416 million in 2019 and has been up and down since Covid, but consolidated net revenue was $470.8 million in its most recent fiscal year, ending February 3, 2024, down from $500 million in the year prior.  However, Vera Bradley’s growth officer and CMO Alison Hiatt said the brand isn’t out for the count yet. How did Vera Bradley fall off? While the brand’s designs were considered bold and lively by Gen X and older Gen Y consumers, also known as Millennials, the brand didn’t strike the same chord with younger Gen Y customers.  In the mid-2010s, Vera Bradley’s once popular floral patterns were giving “coastal grandma”, a style aesthetic that blew up on TikTok in 2022 and has become chic with younger shoppers. The brand’s lackluster merchandising combined with its lack of technological updates made keeping up in an increasingly competitive handbag and accessories market that much harder.  Marie Driscoll, a chartered financial analyst and a professor at Parsons, The New School and the Fashion Institute of Technology, noted that Vera Bradley also had a growth strategy that overly relied on outlets and promotional pricing. To restore brand relevancy, Driscoll explained that Vera Bradley had to reduce its reliance on promotions and establish a solid foundation for steady profitable growth. This is the core of what the brand is attempting to do with ‘Project Restoration’,  a comprehensive turnaround strategy for reviving the brand’s image first announced in April 2023. “Vera Bradley has elevated its brand marketing, product, store design and website in the hopes of recapturing lost customers and attracting new and younger shoppers to the brand,” Driscoll observed. “Supported by a capital budget of $12 to $14 million, three times the level of spending a year ago, the company will update and remodel stores, while on the product front, new contemporary designs, in both leather and updated patterns with heritage Vera Bradley quilting, are compelling offerings likely to capture attention especially given marketing support, both social and influencer-driven.” Driscoll also pointed out that moves – like the addition of Urban Outfitters as a retail partner – are helping to introduce the brand to a younger consumer base, while the addition of retail veteran Ian Bickley to the company’s board marks positive signs of progress for Vera Bradley in the year ahead.  During a panel at the Shoptalk Chicago conference, Hiatt explained that the accessories brand has also been focusing on rebooting its overall structure to better align with the needs of its modern consumer base. This involves overhauling digital operations to provide smoother, more efficient services, in addition to designing more modern products to suit a younger generation of shoppers.  The CMO explained that the brand is working to avoid falling back into the “echo chamber” effect of listening to a diminishing group of existing customers and is on track to a much brighter future ahead.  In the brand’s latest fiscal report, Jackie Ardrey, Vera Bradley’s chief executive officer, remarked, “We enter the second half of the fiscal year in a strong financial position with no debt and $44 million in cash allowing us to remain nimble while navigating a clearly dynamic consumer environment. “We are prudently planning the second half through a more conservative lens, as we expect the trends we’ve seen in both brands to continue. With our brand restoration efforts well under way, we remain agile and flexible for the upcoming fall and holiday season, continuing to drive strong business discipline, and pursuing our vision to inspire people to be bold in their pursuits and brilliant in their self-expression.”  Can Gen Z save Vera Bradley? It’s no secret that the Gen Z and millennial consumers’ fixation with Y2K-era brands like True Religion is bringing more than a few retailers back from the grave.  As Melissa Minkow, a director of retail strategy at CI&T, observed, “I think any previously beloved Millennial brand can make a full comeback by way of Gen Z’s nostalgia for brands they weren’t using during the brand’s first peak.” However, Minkow noted that nostalgia alone won’t help the brand make a proper comeback. While the retail strategist credits Vera Bradley for tapping actress Zoey Deschanel as its latest brand ambassador, she explained that the brand needs to engage with more Gen Z-aligned influencers and celebrities to tap into that consumer base. Additionally, Minkow cautioned that the brand needs to go beyond keeping its signature quilting in the updated product assortment.  “I think they could lean into designing more bags that align with current trends, not just styles that match their heritage. A key component of brands’ comeback success via Gen Z is in creating an offering that isn’t just nostalgic and a nod to the brand’s history, but also one that matches what this generation is buying,” Minkow concluded. Whether Vera Bradley can pull itself back to profit remains unclear. But if there is anything the retail industry loves to hear about, it’s the story of a comeback kid.