How Shea Jensen is turning Urban Outfitters around in North America

Urban Outfitters was ready for a refresh when Shea Jensen joined the brand as president of North America in February 2024.

The brand had finished its 2024 fiscal year with comparable sales down nearly 14%. Executives at its parent company had called out Urban Outfitters’s “disappointing performance” in North America and Europe. Inventory levels, while better than months before, were still elevated. And Urban Outfitters, once a favorite of millennials, was scrambling to keep up with the fast-changing interests of Gen Z.

Jensen, who previously served as president of the denim brand Good American from 2023 to 2024, was tasked with helping to turn around Urban Outfitters in the U.S. and Canada. Her first step was market research. “We needed to learn from our [target] customer — both those that were shopping Urban Outfitters and those that weren’t,” Jensen told Modern Retail.

At Urban Outfitters, Jensen remains focused on meeting customers’ expectations of what the brand should sell — and how it should sell it. When Jensen spoke with customers two years ago, many shoppers expressed that the assortment had “become unintentionally too niche.” “We needed more broad appeal,” Jensen said.

How Shea Jensen is turning Urban Outfitters around in North America – Modern Retail