In episode 335 of Total Retail Talks, recorded at the National Retail Federation's Big Show last month in New York, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviews Ken Natori, president of The Natori Company, a family-owned high-end women's fashion brand. Natori discusses the brand's heritage and its products, his career background before joining his family business, and the growth of The Natori Company's online direct-to-consumer business. He shares how the business worked through the challenges of launching e-commerce over 10 years ago, why wholesale continues to fit into The Natori Co.'s business model, and how BigCommerce helps the retailer develop a superior online customer experience.

In addition, Natori discusses the business benefits and new integrations realized from the brand's partnership with BigCommerce, how The Natori Co. is embracing a hybrid retail strategy, and why he's focused on supply chain logistics and new product categories for growth in 2022. Lastly, he shares what the increasing cost of goods means for The Natori Co., including how the business is dealing with inflationary pricing.

Ken Natori is the president of The Natori Company, a designer fashion brand with collections ranging from ready-to-wear, lingerie, and sleepwear, to home textiles, fine jewelry, accessories, bath, legwear, and fine jewelry. Before becoming president, he ran the company’s e-commerce and licensing businesses, and also helped oversee the finance, public relations and marketing departments. Prior to Natori, Ken worked as both a TV and radio reporter for Bloomberg and in International Equities at Lehman Brothers. Ken holds a MBA from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and a B.A. from Amherst College.

The House of Natori was founded in 1977 and today is one of the fashion industry’s most recognizable designer brands. Each of the Natori brand collections — Josie Natori, Natori, N Natori and Josie by Natori — is a reflection of the namesake designer’s distinctive East/West aesthetic.