Welcome to the latest 2025 edition of The Baker Buzz!

We are pleased to share a selection of our accomplishments from the past year, as well as the exciting opportunities that lie ahead for the Baker Retailing Center.

We have commenced a strategic planning initiative in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group (BCG). After more than two decades of serving as a dynamic hub for retail research, education, and industry collaboration, this moment offers an opportunity to reassess our vision and reimagine how we can most effectively support the future of retail. Guided by insights from our Boards, Penn faculty, students, and industry partners, this effort will help us to build upon our strong foundation while ensuring that our work remains innovative and relevant in a rapidly changing landscape.

This academic year has brought rich opportunities for student engagement. From visits to flagship retail locations and attendance at industry conferences to more intimate lunchtime discussions, our programming has provided students with meaningful connections beyond the classroom. A highlight of the semester was our Executive Speaker Series, which featured insights from leaders at Lowe’s, Ames Watson, Mytheresa, Stockholm School of Economics, and Sephora, on topics ranging from innovation, strategy, leadership, and career opportunities.

As we approach the end of the academic year we remain grateful for our partners, such as yourselves, and our students. Thank you for being the driving force behind our community.

Wishing you a fruitful, fulfilling, and meaningful summer.

Thomas S. Robertson
Academic Director
Jay H. Baker Retailing Center
Joshua J. Harris Professor, Professor of Marketing

CEO SUMMIT: OCTOBER 16, 2025 NEW YORK CITY

SAVE THE DATE

The Baker Retailing Center and RLC Global Forum will once again co-host its annual, invitation-only CEO Summit. This year's theme, "Leading in a Polarized World", anchors a powerful series of conversations with bold leaders who redefined industries not just through innovation, but with purpose. This highly anticipated event will explore how today’s most forward-thinking leaders are navigating the now, building resilient brands, inspiring trust, and shaping a more thoughtful, connected future.

WELCOME NEW BOARD MEMBER

Please welcome Matthew Seigel (C02) to our Advisory Board.

Matthew A. Seigel is a retail executive and Co-founder with twenty years of experience in real estate consulting and venture investing. In his day job, he has built a national platform that creates enterprise value through the development of strategic expansion plans for specialty brands. He pioneered the service line advising direct-to-consumer brands as they navigate their entry into brick-and-mortar retail. Matthew has also invested in numerous emerging brands serving in various roles to help maximize their growth.

Matthew holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers and serves in advisory roles for some of the venture backed companies he advises. A distance runner and art enthusiast, he resides in New York City with his family.

EXECUTIVE SPEAKER SERIES

Bill Boltz is no stranger to a big-box store. Even before becoming Executive Vice President of Merchandising at Lowe’s, Boltz spent 7 years at his current company’s biggest competitor, The Home Depot (or the Orange Guy, as Boltz cheekily refers to them.) Before his foray into the world of hammers and saws, Boltz also spent an incredible 24 years rising through the ranks of the department store, Sears.

Yet, despite over 40 years in retail merchandising, Bill Boltz had never actually set out to join the retail industry. Boltz’s career in retail started in 1982 with what was supposed to be a 90-day job putting bicycles together for Sears—just a way to cover tuition, he thought. Instead, he discovered a passion.

The Baker Retailing Center, in partnership with Penn Fashion Week, was proud to welcome Heather Kaminetsky, President of North America at Mytheresa.com, for an inspiring executive speaker event.

Heather Kaminetsky joined Mytheresa in 2021 to lead the luxury e-commerce platform’s expansion across the United States and Canada. Her first priority was establishing a dedicated, customer-facing US team, an essential move in one of Mytheresa’s most important growth markets. Today, she oversees all brand-facing efforts in North America, including Personal Shopping, Communications, and Affiliate Marketing.

Lawrence Berger (W94, WG00), Co-founder & Partner, Ames Watson: "I think there are two kinds of jobs in the world: transactional and operational. And I think the number one thing you want to figure out in business school is which path are you going to take."

Sara Rosengren, Professor of Business Administration, Stockholm School of Economics: "One of the things we have been overlooking a little bit, is not paying attention to influencers and thinking [they] are just billboards that are paid to do things. They’re actually changing a lot in how we interact and how we create businesses."

Zeenat Subedar, Senior Director, Brand Marketing, Makeup, Sephora: "This was a really big thing at the start of last year: Kids at Sephora... I think because of social media, these kids know a lot. You ask a nine or ten-year old about what brands they like. You think they’re going to say Maybelline or Lipsmackers, but they say, “I like Dior Lip Oil.””

STUDENT RETAIL INITIATIVES

The Wharton Graduate Retail & Consumer Club (WGRC) hosted its 19th annual conference, Expanding Retail Frontiers: Charting New Paths in Consumer Experience, in New York City.

In January, the Baker Retailing Center co-hosted an exclusive visit to Tiffany & Co. with the top-performing undergraduate winners of Marketing 101’s retail simulation, Pivot or Perish.

This challenge places the future of a legacy department store in students' hands, requiring them to make high-stakes decisions to win in the retail world. These students achieved the highest performance in the simulation’s history which include E-MBA, MBA, and undergraduate programs.

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

Growing up in Lima, Peru on her family’s organic chicken farm, Sarela Herrada learned about the beauty of farming and developed a deep connection to the land. Yet, after joining the food industry, she quickly discovered the realities of the global food system: “exploitation of farmers, environmental harm, and lack of transparency.” Herrada’s experiences inspired her to co-found SIMPLi in 2020, alongside her husband, Matt Cohen.

SIMPLi is a regenerative organic food company that offers a range of Regenerative Organic Certified® products, like quinoa sourced directly from Indigenous farmers in Peru. Regenerative organic agriculture goes beyond regular organic farming by focusing on three pillars: soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness.

“While organic farming avoids synthetic chemicals,” Herrada explains, “regenerative practices actively restore ecosystems, sequester carbon, and improve biodiversity.”

INDUSTRY REPORTS

ThredUp’s 13th Resale Report Shows Online Resale Saw Accelerated Growth in 2024, Expected to Reach $40 Billion by 2029

ThredUp’s 2025 Resale Report, conducted with GlobalData, reveals growing consumer interest in secondhand fashion amid economic pressures and shifting shopping habits. Based on surveys of over 3,000 U.S. consumers and 50 top fashion retailers, the report found that 59% of consumers would turn to resale if tariffs increase apparel prices, and 46% would avoid buying new if they could find the item secondhand. Notably, 39% of younger shoppers purchased secondhand clothing through social commerce platforms in the past year. The U.S. secondhand apparel market grew 14% in 2024, its strongest growth since 2021, outpacing the broader retail clothing sector by five times. Globally, the secondhand market is projected to reach $367 billion by 2029, with a 10% CAGR.

How Tariffs Are Shaping Investor Expectations

Investor sentiment in the U.S. has sharply deteriorated following sweeping tariff hikes on nearly all trade partners, with only 20% of investors remaining ‘bullish’ down from 65% in late 2024. A majority now expect a recession in 2025, driven by fears of stagnating global trade, inflation, and the unexpected scale of the tariffs. BCG’s recent investor survey revealed that most believe the tariffs will harm both consumers and corporations through higher prices and squeezed margins. Despite this challenging environment, investors still expect companies to meet earnings baselines and sustain dividend payouts while also investing in long-term growth. Companies are now under pressure to somehow protect margins, strengthen supply chains, and pursue strategic acquisitions, all while managing debt and navigating evolving trade policies.

FACULTY HIGHLIGHTS

Speaking slower can increase customer satisfaction and increase their perception of the speaker’s empathy, according to new research by Jonah Berger (Associate Professor of Marketing, The Wharton School) and Giovanni Luca Cascio Rizzo (Assistant Professor, USC Marshall). In the article, How Speaking Slower Influences Consumer Behavior, Berger discusses the implications of this research on customer service and offers a new angle on the discourse about speech speed.

A new analysis by the Penn Wharton Budget Model (PWBM) initiative shows that the full effects of President Trump’s international tariffs are actually far more wide-reaching than existing trade models show. The new comprehensive trade model detailed in The Economic Effects of President Trump’s Tariffs, developed by PWBM economists Lysle Boller, Kody Carmody, Jon Huntley, and Felix Reichling, projects that the tariffs will reduce long-run GDP by about 6% and wages by 5%, resulting in lifetime losses of $22K for a middle-income household. The analysis compares the tariffs to a corporate tax increase, finding that the tariffs have double the GDP and wage losses of a tax increase bringing in the same revenue.

In How Generative AI Is Changing Market Research, Jeremy Korst (Partner, GBK Collective), Stefano Puntoni (Sebastian S. Kresge Professor of Marketing, The Wharton School), and Olivier Toubia (Professor, Columbia University) explore how gen AI is poised to revolutionize the field of market research by offering firms new ways to understand their customers and make smarter, data-driven decisions. Drawing from two years of study, they outline four ways gen AI is transforming the space. While the technology holds immense promise, the authors emphasize the need to use it responsibly, with a focus on fairness, accuracy, and meaningful customer understanding.

The Jay H. Baker Retailing Center, established in 2002, is an interdisciplinary industry research center,
whose mission is to be the global leader in retail knowledge and education.