Pandemic Hastens Online Shopping Wins, Losses

It looks like just another Zoom chat in a pandemic year full of them. Two colleagues—let’s call them “Kim” and “Andy”—have a friendly discussion about work. Kim sits center screen with a tastefully decorated room as her backdrop. Andy, obviously a laid-back guy, barely appears at the bottom of his screen, which is improbably dominated by a couple of closet doors and the bedroom ceiling.

But instead of the usual banter about work, this is an earnings call chat between two high-powered business players—Morgan Stanley Managing Director Kimberly Greenberger and L Brands and Bath & Body Works President and CEO Andrew Meslow.

The contrast between the prosaic 2020 webcast and previous years’ glamour-packed presentations could not have been more striking—or more emblematic of the changes COVID-19 has hastened at L Brands and among Columbus’ publicly traded retail giants in general.

Continue reading on Columbus CEO.