Ralph Lauren CEOs on label’s double-digit growth strategy

Ralph Lauren reaffirmed its commitment to China with a runway show and a Hamptons-inspired exhibition in Shanghai on April 2. The activation is part of a broader strategy that has fueled growth in Asia and prompted the brand to raise its full-year FY2025 forecast. With 27 stores in Shanghai and 250 across Greater China, Ralph Lauren’s retail strategy focuses on its presence in six key cities. Asia continues to be a crucial growth driver for Ralph Lauren, with the region delivering 14% YoY revenue growth last quarter and China exceeding 20% in constant currency. This performance, alongside Europe’s 16% growth, contributed to the business raising its full-year outlook. Helming this growth is President and CEO Patrice Louvet, who joined the company in 2017 alongside Shin Hwee Chua, Regional CEO of Asia-Pacific. Together, they’ve redefined how the brand operates in key markets and deepened its commitment to consumer-centric thinking and operational discipline, as well as cross-functional collaboration. While in Shanghai, Jing Daily sat down with Louvet and Shin to learn about the brand’s strategy in China, how local insights shape global ambition, and innovation. Jing Daily: What has changed the most in Ralph Lauren, globally, and regionally in the past eight years? Patrice Louvet: We have greater clarity on who we are. We have a dramatically different focus on the consumer and a greater balance between magic and logic. Also, we built a certain rationality and an operational discipline while keeping inspiration, ideation and creativity. Our company culture has also evolved with a high level of collaboration between the teams. We tend to say that culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Shin Hwee Chua: We kept the essential DNA but with a greater level of collaboration across the globe, and a deeper appreciation for the different functions — as Patrice mentioned, the logic and the magic. There is a creative team bringing the magic, and a logical team driving the business. There is now a much greater appreciation on both sides, which allows us to bring Ralph’s vision to life. JD: What considerations influenced your decision to screen the ‘Very Ralph’ documentary in Shanghai and hold a fashion show here? PL: I like to think of Ralph Lauren as a global company with American roots, not an American company with a global business. We have been in the China market for more than 30 years, but we are actually relatively new because the proper start in China was about 10 years ago. SHC: Shanghai remains for us the hub of the fashion industry in China and we have 27 stores in this city, with room for more. By doing this fashion show here, we wanted to set the scene and sow a seed for the future. Through Very Ralph, we were able to tell in a movie the story of our brand, our value, and the conceptualization of Ralph’s ideas. Tonight, we are going to bring all these to life—we are going to bring a piece of Ralph’s home, his inspiration for the last 50 years, to Shanghai. Lastly, Shanghai is a global stage — hosting the show here amplifies its reach both in China and worldwide. JD: How do you ensure that the brand ethos of timeless elegance resonates with China’s young, digitally native, and culturally sophisticated luxury consumers? SHC: We have done it successfully over the last 58 years and as Ralph always says, fashion comes and goes, but style is forever. Timeless style is us but we need to freshen it up and make it relevant to consumers as they are not looking at timelessness with the same lens as they did 20 years ago. PL: To adapt, we have streamlined the portfolio, including Supply (Ralph Lauren Denim&Supply), Rugby (Ralph Lauren Rugby), Club Monaco. We think we have, under the Ralph Lauren banner, overall the right different sensibilities … We have been much more disciplined on our consumer segmentation and targeting. JD: How does Ralph Lauren differentiate itself from competitors and in what ways does Chinese consumer behavior inform your brand, product, and messaging? PL: First, at a time of uncertainty and anxiety, which I think a lot of the consumers are feeling, they will tend to gravitate to brands they know, products they trust, categories they recognize. Second, we put a lot of emphasis on the value perception and make sure the consumer sees his purchase as a good investment, and they don’t feel the price points are driven to something unreasonable. I am proud of the fact we have increased our average unit retail price meaningfully over the past eight years, and our value perception has been that good. JD: What are the drivers behind last quarter’s performance? PL: The combination of a strong customer focus, operational discipline, and the balance between logic and magic can explain that. But that strong performance, despite the fact we are still early in our journey in China, does not come from this quarter only. Under the direction of our APAC CEO Shin Hwee Chua, we’ve also built a directly run and digitally led, connected ecosystem. Having a strong CRM mindset while we leverage our retail network, focusing on China’s top six cities, has driven this growth. JD: How do recent store openings at Beijing’s China World Mall and Hong Kong’s Pacific Place fit into your omnichannel strategy? PL: We do have 27 stores in Shanghai and about 250 in China. If I need to give you a proper picture of our retail development in the region, we have identified six key cities: Beijing, Chengdu, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Taipei. For those, we built what I could call a consumer centric ecosystem with the combination of digital and brick and mortar. In Shanghai, for example, as it’s the location of our fashion show, we have identified other potential locations asking ourselves: Is it the right neighborhood? What presence do we have? Who are the customers in this area ? Are we represented in the right way? JD: What are the business’ critical growth engines? PL: We have three strategic pillars that we put in place 5-6 years ago, and we still find them relevant today. First, elevate and energize our lifestyle brand. Second, drive the core and expand for more from a product category standpoint. Lastly, win key cities, top 30, with a consumer-centric ecosystem. On the second point and driving the core and expanding from a product standpoint, I can share that 70% of our business is core, with items like cable knit sweaters, polo shirts. It’s unique because it gives the company a strong foundation versus a strategy where we roll the dice every season. Seventy percent of our collections are going to be consistent, 30% will be more ‘fashion’. The third point is to win in key cities, in China and worldwide. In Asia, our brand is more elevated. Customers are very sophisticated, such as in Seoul or Tokyo. Do you know that Japan is where we sell our highest priced items, the most valuable ones, such as cashmere sweaters? We are working aggressively to get inspiration from those very sophisticated key cities and share the best practices. We are learning from the East and it’s benefiting all of the organization. JD: Which business segments will you focus on? PL: We have three high potential businesses: The women’s category, where we have incredible momentum in APAC and China. It’s a $150 billion market, so, lots of runway. Outerwear turns out to be another one and counting for about 10% of our business. Then we have handbags. Those are the categories I think we can focus on for the next three to five years. JD: How has your digital strategy shaped both customer engagement and bottom-line performance? SHC: Our digital strategy in China is very advanced — a true case study for our HQ and Western markets. For instance, on April 1, we launched our women’s store on Douyin. It’s a 2.0 version which is focused on story telling of the brand and the style, set in a New York loft apartment. PL: DTC is about 67% of our business. However, we believe there is a role for quality wholesale. One reason is that it’s a discovery platform for new customers. The second is that there is a significant scale benefit to the wholesale business. But yes, we cleaned up our distribution dramatically post-Covid. Jing Daily presents C-Suite Visionaries — an exclusive interview series spotlighting the most influential executives at the helm of today’s leading brands in art, fashion, commerce, and culture. Get inside the minds of the decision-makers driving growth, innovation, and cultural relevance at the highest levels.

Ralph Lauren CEOs on label’s double-digit growth strategy

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Published April 17, 2025

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Ralph Lauren CEOs on label’s double-digit growth strategy