JCPenney's brand CEO says she wears its fashions from 'head to toe' and hands out gift cards to surprised shoppers

• Shopping mall staple JCPenney is working on a comeback after a challenging decade.
• The company is betting on its iconic in-house brands to offer shoppers more style for their dollars.
• CEO Michelle Wlazlo says she wears the designs "head to toe," surprising some people she meets.

Money is tight, and shoppers are picky, so JCPenney is aiming to be the place to go when you want to look good on a budget.

It debuted its spring collection this week in Paris, Texas, rather than the French city of light, to convey a sense of being more attainable than aspirational, brand CEO Michelle Wlazlo told Business Insider.

"I respect Paris Fashion Week and all of it — we're in the fashion business," she said. "Our customers are not in the audience there."

At a time when top designers are offering increasingly expensive apparel and accessories, Wlazlo says she's leaning into the 120-year-old retailer's portfolio of in-house brands, such as Liz Claiborne and Worthington, to craft affordable styles.

"I walk down the street all the time, and I wear our products head to toe," Wlazlo said. "If you knew how many gift cards I hand out when I meet people … People are always shocked, 'That is the greatest outfit.'"

Rebuilding an iconic brand after a decade in decline

Formerly JCPenney's chief merchandising officer, Wlazlo took over as brand CEO when the company was reorganized last year as a subsidiary of Catalyst Brands along with struggling mall staples like Aéropostale, Brooks Brothers, Lucky Brand, and Nautica.

Quarterly sales and profits continue to be soft, recent financial filings show, but the company says it's staging a comeback with 18 months of consecutive increases in customer trip frequency and a 20% increase in loyalty customers from last year.

"While sales are still under pressure, they have managed to slow the losses," Global Data retail analyst Neil Saunders told Business Insider. "The next step on the journey is to deepen the private label offer to help differentiate from rivals."

One reason for the optimism, Wlazlo says, is because her teams are working to deliver both the Levi's jeans and Nike activewear that shoppers want, as well as in-house options that round out an outfit or occasion.

"Our national brands and private brands actually should complement each other," she said. "Customers don't only buy the thing that's the cheapest, they buy the thing that actually has the most relevant value for what they're looking for."

Sometimes the shoppers don't realize their favorite brand, like the Stafford menswear collection, is a JCPenney exclusive, Wlazlo said.

Making it easy — and affordable — to refresh the wardrobe

And while some mall retail competitors are dealing with more single-item shoppers, Wlazlo says basket building is alive and well at JCPenney.

Her teams are also taking that cue to rethink the department store layout for more complementary presentations.

"If someone's coming in to buy a dress, actually, how nice it is to have their shapewear nearby and the footwear that might go with it," Wlazlo said.

In other words, that means designing the store around typical shopping missions (like gearing up for spring break) rather than traditional merchandise categories (shoes here, outerwear there, swimwear somewhere else).

"We try to make their shopping experience something they can build every time they come to make it worth the trip," Wlazlo said. "I don't want to force the customers to walk through the whole store if they don't need to."

Taken together, JCPenney is betting that offering stylish outfits while also saving shoppers time and money will help bring the iconic chain back to growth.

JCPenney faces tough competition on the convenience and value fronts from retailers that are successfully leaning into style, like Walmart and TJX, as well as Target, which is charting a turnaround course of its own.

"I do think there is a lot of work that JCP still needs to do before it can declare victory, but it has been headed in the right direction," Saunders said.

Wlazlo says there's a place in the market for JCPenney.

"Once people stop me or go into our stores, we see them convert all the time," Wlazlo said. "They just need to be reminded of what we are."