David’s Bridal aims to shift to an asset-light business model, focused on its retail media network, marketplace and new apparel categories.
Bridal gown retailer David’s Bridal named Kelly Cook, the chain’s former president of brand, technology and finance, as the new CEO effective April 1.
Cook will lead David’s Bridal into an asset-light business model, focused on its retail media network and its wedding planning platform. It plans to launch new AI personalization tools for brides to wedding plan and expand into new apparel categories outside of bridal including menswear, accessories, swimwear, luxury and couture.
David’s Bridal plans to use more dropshippers to get its business split to 50% its own manufactured merchandise, 50% outside brands, down from roughly 90% of its business from its own merchandise today.
“I am ecstatic for the evolution of David’s into a dynamic and powerful tech-enabled retailer, marketplace and platform,” said Cook in a press release announcement.
Cook will replace Jim Marcum, who will become executive chairman in addition to his current position as chairman of the board of directors.
‘Aisle-to-algorithm’ strategy
David’s Bridal is a popular wedding destination for many brides for bridal gowns, bridesmaid dresses, wedding guest attire, prom dresses and other bridal accessories. The brand sells nearly one-third of wedding dresses in the U.S annually, and its website has more than 300 million digital visits annually, according to David’s Bridal. What’s more 90% of all brides enter David’s ecosystem throughout their wedding planning journey, it says.
Over the past few years, it’s expanded its business to include a marketplace for wedding vendors called Pearl. The platform allows brides to search for wedding vendors across categories, such as D.J.s, photographers and honeymoon packages, sorted by location. This adds a new revenue stream for David’s without the inventory.
David’s latest business strategy, dubbed aisle to algorithm, taps into its reach of brides who are now perusing its site for wedding planning. In December, David’s launched its Pearl Media Network to connect brides with thousands of ad-buying wedding vendors and adjacent brands. At this time it also acquired Love Stories TV, now called Love Stories by David. The wedding content library has more than 8 million social followers, 30,000 followers and 20 million viewers per month.
The network gives wedding vendors access to David’s first-party data so they can buy targeted ad campaigns across digital, social, video on demand, linear and in-store touchpoints.
Artificial intelligence-powered personalization
The wedding retailer’s new strategy also leans on artificial intelligence. In Q2 2025, the brand will debuted AI wedding planning tools that will further help brides find vendors for their wedding, task management and planning. This will also provide vendors with more data-focused targeting information.
“With couples managing hundreds of wedding tasks, David’s is further investing in a personalized AI-powered planning tool and marketplace to simplify the process,” according to the press release.
Already, David’s Bridal says it uses AI in 90% of its customer communications.
Despite being the largest bridal retail chain, David’s Bridal has filed for bankruptcy several times. Most recently it filed for bankruptcy in April 2023 and exited in July 2023 when Cion Investment Corp purchased the brand.
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