Kelcie Slaton (Ph.D.) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Merchandising and Digital Retailing at the University of North Texas. Dr. Slaton obtained her Ph.D. from the Department of Apparel, Merchandising, and Design at Iowa State University and M.S. from the Department of Merchandising and Digital Retailing at the University of North Texas.

Research Story:

My love for exploring and finding answers to industry questions began when I was working as an assistant buyer for Nieman Marcus. It was then I realized I wanted to engage in research that would be advantageous to the retail industry. Thus, my expertise broadly speaking focuses on the modern era of retailing and exploring how retailers can innovate to have long-term business sustainability in a time of changing consumer preferences. Specifically, I explore three main areas: (1) consumer behavior, (2) channel strategies, and (3) collaborative consumption.

Consumers are dynamic and an exploration to understand shopping behavior is a major interest of mine. I have recently examined what luxury means to millennial consumers publishing the definition:

Luxury is the characteristics of the products themselves, addresses the consumer’s personal needs, and addresses the consumer’s social needs.

I have also explored the interworking of this luxury millennial consumer creating consumer profiles with the hope of providing strategic guidance for retailers struggling to capture this consumer segment.

As the consumer evolves, business strategies must also evolve, evoking research into retailer’s channel strategies. Recently, I have been exploring strategies that focus on reducing the overall selling footprint of the luxury department store and providing more experiential environments and convenience elements for consumers. Examples of this in the industry include Bloomies by Bloomingdales and Nordstrom Local by Nordstrom. Through my research, I have found that consumers are excited by such strategies influencing positive, recurrent consumer behavior. Thus, encouraging luxury department stores to invest in new formats to attract consumer traffic and increase purchasing. Social media is also a trending channel I have investigated with the integration of another trending topic, AI. I investigated the use of generative AI for luxury social media communication and found positive empirical evidence on the use of AI technology. Meaning that employing AI for generating social media marketing communications is a promising strategy for luxury brands allowing them to personalize their messaging efficiently and optimizing resource use such as employee time and marketing budgets.

I have been interested in the phenomenon of collaborative consumption, again in the realm of luxury. Store such as The RealReal have emerged as major players in the luxury industry, posing the question of consumer intrigue in this market. I sought to investigate online consumption of secondhand luxury finding that motivations of environmental sustainability, frugality, interest in online retailing, and fashion consciousness influenced purchase of secondhand luxury goods. I also looked at the product category of sneakers in the secondary market as where limited-edition, high-priced sneakers are being bought at record speeds and are sold for hundreds to thousands of
dollars more than retail price. My investigation led to the realization that popular culture, celebrity influence, and social media were drivers in their consumption phenomenon.

The concepts of change and evolution is a constant in the retail industry. While this is a small snapshot of my research, the goal of my research agenda is to investigate and explore strategies that encourage business sustainability for retailers and brands. I aim to continue to add conceptual, empirical, and methodological contributions to the merchandising field by staying curious and up to date on the latest trends and dynamic consumer behavior experienced in the industry year after year.