Raissa Gerona Of Revolve On What It Takes To Build A Billion-Dollar Brand

The Chief Brand Officer of one of the world’s biggest fashion retailers shares how she makes marketing magic.

By Jeffrey Yan - published 25 Jan 2024

Not many people can claim that they’ve helped power a brand into a billion-dollar success story. Raissa Gerona can. In a marketplace saturated with online fashion retailers, the Chief Brand Officer of Revolve has played an instrumental role in building the company into a retail powerhouse, one with a distinctive identity all its own.

Gerona was one of the first to recognise the power of influencers in the social media age—she pioneered the influencer trip and turned it into a potent marketing tool. Beautiful girls in beautiful clothes, photographed in the most stunning locales looking like they’re having the time of their lives ... who wouldn’t want to buy into that dream? The selling of that dream brought in over US$1 billion in revenue for Revolve last year. And if Gerona has her way, that number is only going to get bigger as she has her sights set on global expansion. Here, the marketing whiz shares her insights on telling stories that resonate, trusting your gut, and not being afraid to look stupid.

What is the most fulfilling thing about what you do, and on the other hand, what is the biggest challenge?

I’m going to start with the challenge. I think the most challenging thing is to be better. You always want to get better at everything that you do, as a person and also from a business standpoint. If we had an incredible year last year, I want to make sure the team does a better job this year. If we had a really good Revolve Festival, how do we make the next one even better?

For me, the most fulfilling part would be two things. One, which I experienced recently in Singapore, is when people who are far from Los Angeles are aware about the brand. It makes me feel so happy that the team and I, the entire company, is doing a good job to reach these people and connect with them in a really positive and impactful way. Hearing them talk about how much they love the product, and the events and parties that we throw—that is super satisfying. The other thing is just the team that I work with. There are so many different people on the team. Some are super young and this is their first job out of university; some I have worked with for more than 10 years. Just seeing them grow and evolve, and be part of this brand and what we are building is really satisfying.

What would you say is your biggest priority for Revolve at the moment?

It’s making sure that our brand stays relevant and competitive, not just in the US, but globally. It goes back to my earlier answer about how do we get better? How do we continue to engage with our current customer base and also acquire new ones? It’s something I obsess about––how to connect with them, be it through social media, events, press, etc. And also thinking about the product and site experience. Ultimately, the customer dictates exactly what she wants. And so I just try to be super mindful of what they are looking for, to make sure that we are relevant and top of mind for them.

How can brands make sure that what they put out is able to cut through the noise and clutter of a very crowded online space?

It is so hard. I would say that it’s about staying authentic to who you are. Of course, there is always going to be something exciting, whether it’s a new collaboration like the one we did with Elsa Hosk, or a trip like the one we made to Singapore, or this upcoming Revolve Festival we are planning. But even when you’re not doing these large events, you have to stay true to what the brand is about. For Revolve, it’s about being fun, living your best life; it’s about travel, and sharing these moments on social media. No matter what we do, all of those things have to be there all the time. You also need to engage with the people who would value that from a brand perspective.

Chriselle Lim, Elsa Hosk, Raissa Gerona and Aimee Song. Photo: Courtesy of Revolve
Revolve Around The World Singapore_Chriselle Lim Elsa Hosk Raissa Gerona Aimee Song

When you are planning things like these big events or collaborations, how much of your decision making is data-driven, and how much of it is based on instinct or a gut feeling?

A lot of it is data-driven. For instance, when we came to Singapore, it’s about making sure that we have the right people whose audience is present in the region, because we’re obviously trying to increase our brand awareness in Southeast Asia. But there are also moments where you instinctively know when something or someone makes sense, maybe because they are living the brand, or they dress really well. One of the things I take a lot of pride in with Revolve is finding new creators that we work with. Some of them have very small followings, and we give them the platform and the opportunity to become part of the community. I would say it’s 80/20: 80 percent data-driven and 20 percent gut feeling. But sometimes it changes. When we’re looking for new influencers to work with, it might be the opposite, where it’s 80 percent gut feeling.

What excites you the most about the fashion industry today?

I think what is so exciting is that almost anyone is able to create a brand or become an influencer. There are so many different channels and platforms that it allows a multi-brand retailer like Revolve to work with so many different types of people from all over the world. The fact that anyone with a great idea is able to start a social media account, a website, build their brand, and then eventually get on a platform like Revolve—that is so cool. Eighty percent of the brands that we sell on Revolve are smaller, emerging brands that we typically find on Instagram. And I think the more of those brands there are, the more exciting it is for the customer. We’ve seen an influx of new brands in the last five to six years, and that’s always cool to me to see what people are doing, what they are making, who they are following.

On the flip side, is there anything you don’t like about the industry?

When you have a lot of fast fashion, it’s good and bad, right? It’s cool because the customer can get things so quickly. But it’s also tough for the smaller, emerging brands that are putting out collections, taking their time, building a brand. It’s a tough question for me because I’m always rooting for everybody to succeed, but I think when you have these very big fast-fashion companies, it does make it difficult for other brands and designers to really stand out and to serve the customer because the customer gets used to wanting something fast and cheap.

Revolve CEO Michael Mente and Raissa Gerona. Photo: Courtesy of Revolve
Revolve Around The World Singapore_CEO Michael Mente Raissa Gerona

What are your short- and long-term goals for Revolve?

There are so many. I would say the top ones would be, first, to continue to gain market share. I think the customer really knows us for going-out dresses, travel wear, things like that. But we have so many SKUs on the website. At any given point, there’s 60,000 things on the website that you can buy—there’s beauty, now we have some things for the home, there are things to work out in, there’s men’s. It’s really important that we are able to market that and let people know there are a bunch of other things they can purchase on the site.

The second is to be more global. In any given quarter, 20 to 25 percent of our business comes from outside the US. I think that number can get much larger, especially with us doing the kind of activations we did in Singapore and Mexico City last year. There’s so much opportunity and there’s still so many people that don’t know about Revolve, so the focus is for us to be as global as possible, and also making sure that things are in place for that to happen. There are so many things we have to get right when we enter a region. First and foremost is the customer service aspect. Can they read the website? Do they trust that they can put in their credit card information? Can we ensure that shipping and returns will be at the same standard of service as what we are providing in the US?

Most of the brands you carry on Revolve are wholesale accounts but you also have in-house brands. Can you share how much they contribute to the business and if this is a category the company is looking to expand?

Currently, own-brand is about 20 percent of the business. There isn’t really a target that we have. Again, we are so consumer-focused that if the customer wants to buy own-brand, that is amazing; if she wants to buy third-party, that’s also amazing. It’s really being dictated by what the customer is looking for. If there’s a category or a trend that is missing, that we can influence on the own-brand side, we will absolutely try to service the customer and make sure that what she’s looking for is available. In terms of expansion, we have 25 brands at the moment, which I think is a lot. So right now, our focus is to really grow the brands that we have. If we were to launch a new brand, it would have to be with partners like Elsa Hosk or Camila Coelho—someone who is able to fully creative direct a brand, both from the product perspective and the marketing perspective. For our own brands, the focus is on making sure that they’re all serving the customer, that they all have a purpose, that they are well-made and look really good. With 25 brands, that is sometimes hard to do, so we want to make sure that we kind of go back to the basics and get them all in a really amazing place.

You’ve done the Revolve Around The World influencer trips for 10 years now. It was a game changer when it started, in terms of how brands worked with influencers. Now that the programme is entering its second decade, how are you planning to keep things fresh and exciting?

I think now, we’re significantly more mindful of the region or the place that we visit. Again, I’ll cite Singapore as an example, because it’s an important region for us and historically, we haven’t really been active there. It’s about being strategic with the location so that it really excites the influencers and also the consumer. The second thing is to have new influencers that attend. Like in Singapore, it was so cool because we had more than 100 creators attend and many of those people we’ve never met before. That gives me so much more confidence that we can do that repeatedly. In times past, we would just travel with girls and go to a place, but I think it’s such a different take to go to a place and then invite all these people to come and experience what a Revolve Around The World looks like.

For someone who wants to do what you’re doing, what are the most important qualities to have?

I think it’s important to be very open to new things and new experiences. Because marketing is all about what’s new and what’s next, and connecting with the customer, so being open to change is essential. One of the things I try to be is a person who wants to always learn. I want to see what other people are doing. I’m always looking at what other brands are doing, and seeing if we can do it better or if we can learn something. When I was younger, I thought I knew everything and I was really afraid to ask questions because I didn’t want to look stupid. Now that I’m older, I’m the opposite—I feel so not smart. I want to make sure that I don’t [feel like I] know everything because that just stops me from evolving and growing.