Dive Brief:
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Mall jewelry and accessories chain Claire’s is planning upgrades to its legacy systems in 2026, according to a LinkedIn post by Malcolm Lamboy, executive director, chief enterprise architecture, generative AI, data, e-commerce and strategy at Claire’s.
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The retailer, which experienced financial challenges in 2025, plans to deliver “more seamless data and application integrations,” as well as adopt and implement a modern point-of-sale platform to bolster customer in-store experiences, Lamboy said.
- “These initiatives represent the next wave of Claire’s transformation, where technology becomes not just an enabler, but a growth engine,” Lamboy said.
Dive Insight:
Claire’s technology transformation comes at a time when the company is pushing to reduce costs and regain its footing in the consumer market.
In August, Claire’s filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the second time in seven years. After its initial filing in 2018, the company struggled to implement its restructuring plan and pivot its business as buying habits changed. A month after its second filing last summer, it was acquired by private investment company Ames Watson for $140 million. The firm said it planned to modernize and revitalize the chain.
“Every turnaround we’ve done begins with people,” said Tom Ripley, partner and co-founder at Ames Watson, in a press release at the time. “Claire’s has an incredibly passionate field team — many with 20 years or more in these stores — and their loyalty will be the foundation of this next chapter.”
Technology will likely be part of that foundation as the company focuses on its data and tech stacks. In 2025, Claire’s zeroed in on “transformation, modernizing our foundation, optimizing our operations and driving measurable impact,” Lamboy wrote in his LinkedIn post.
The company achieved technology-related cost reductions and geared its foundation toward technology upgrades in 2026, said Lamboy, who started at Claire’s in February 2023 as global director of enterprise architecture. Lamboy previously spent more than five years at Starbucks as a system engineer architect.
Lamboy added that the company reduced its Microsoft Azure cloud spend by more than 48% year over year through automation, improving governance and right-sizing workloads. It also reduced costs by optimizing Microsoft 365 licensing while rebuilding its data structure and accelerating store technology refreshes.
The dual goals of improving customer experience while optimizing operations is an ongoing focus for Lamboy. A year ago, he touted the company’s exploration of generative AI as being part of a similar pursuit.
