Kendra Reichenau, CEO, Heartland America

Heartland America is a 40-year-old direct marketing company specializing in end-of-season and close-out merchandise, everything from clothing and electronics to housewares and lawn and garden. We’re focused on delivering great quality and great value for our customers.

I fell in love with clothing at a very young age, and I actually started my own clothing company in high school, designing and selling pieces in small boutiques. In college, I worked for both Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus, which is where I developed my love of the customer. After graduating, I was fortunate enough to join the GAP merchandise training program, which opened my eyes to merchandising, product development, design, production, and sourcing. It opened a thousand doors for me in ways I never expected.

What’s interesting about this business is that because we buy close-outs and end-of-season products, we’re able to chase trends in real time. We turn our inventory nine times a year, which is almost unheard of in retail. That speed allows us to bring something in, see how it performs, and reorder quickly if it does well, or clear it out and move on if it doesn’t. We can react to the business almost instantly.

Data drives every decision we make. We use a third-party Power BI platform that lets us look at our business from multiple angles all day, every day, from catalog response rates and digital marketing performance to product sales, contribution margin, and even shipping costs and box dimensions. It took about three years to build that capability properly, making sure we had good data going in and good data coming out. I’ve been here five years, and I can say confidently that we don’t make decisions without data. If you don’t understand the fundamentals of your business, you simply can’t make good decisions.

We work closely with our vendors, our top 40 of whom account for about 50% of our business, so we meet with them regularly to understand what’s working, what’s not, and what trends they’re seeing. We attend market shows around the country, visit vendors directly, and stay close to our customers as well. Our customer service team plays an important role here too: they hear directly from shoppers every day and pass along ideas for products we should consider carrying.

It’s hard. But I do think there are customers, and companies, who want to work with a smaller or mid-sized business because they believe in it. If you deliver exceptional customer service and truly do right by the customer, people notice, and they stay loyal. We built our business on the promise of quality, price, and service, and that’s earned us a loyal customer base that keeps coming back. Larger retailers often carry exactly what everyone else carries. At a company like ours, you can find something genuinely special, something you won’t find anywhere else. We also act as a curator for our customers: we research and product-test everything we sell, so when they shop with us, they know they’re getting the best price and value without having to do that work themselves.

When I was younger, I was more aggressive and probably more demanding. Over time, I’ve learned how to hold people accountable while leading with more grace and compassion. I’ve also come to understand that everyone is dealing with something at home, so I try to lead with empathy and give people the benefit of the doubt until I truly understand what’s going on. Sometimes you just don’t know what you don’t know.

I bring my dog to work at least once a week. Everyone loves Frankie, he’s become a bit of a mascot around here. I think dogs bring genuine joy, and our employees love having him around. It creates a really fun atmosphere in the office.