Cristina Peñalver holds a degree in economics from the Autonomous University of Madrid and is an alumna of ISEM’s Executive MBA program. She began her career in fragrance marketing at LVMH Fragrance Brands, Parfums Christian Dior, and Douglas, and in 2013 made the transition to the fashion industry with Inditex, where she worked in product management, commercial control, and e-commerce at Uterqüe. She later headed up merchandising for footwear and accessories for private-label brands at El Corte Inglés, served as merchandise director at Petramora, and worked as business & commercial controlling manager at BESTSELLER. Since April 2026, she has been working as a fractional executive and business consultant for fashion brands, such as Moi&Sass.

You started out in fragrance marketing and ended up specializing in product and business strategy in the fashion industry. What led you to make that shift?

It was thanks to my time at ISEM. While working in the fragrance industry, I enrolled in the former Executive MBA program, and the opportunity arose to join Inditex in the product department. In the fragrance industry, I learned something fundamental: how to build a brand and how to create desire and aspirational value. But over time, I realized that a season’s results are determined long before the campaign begins: what product you make, how much you buy, at what price you sell it, and where you place it. I wanted to be right there, at the intersection of creativity and the bottom line. That’s why I made the leap to fashion, where the product is renewed every season and those decisions are made constantly.

How would you explain what a merchandiser does and why they play such a crucial role in a fashion brand?

This is the person who translates the creative aspect into business. In practice, they build the collection’s structure: how many product families and SKUs, how much depth per model, the balance between basics and new items, how new arrivals are staggered, and how the product is allocated between stores and online. Once the campaign is launched, their job is to monitor, track, and anticipate the collection’s performance: restocks, corrections, and distribution adjustments. This person plays a crucial role because they are at the center of all departments: they liaise with design, buying, logistics, retail, and e-commerce. Their decisions ensure that the right product is in the right place, in the right quantity, and at the right time. And that directly translates into sales, profit margins, and the brand’s image.

How do you balance fashion intuition with the discipline of numbers? What metrics do you consider essential for determining whether a collection is performing well?

There’s a saying attributed to Emilio Botín: “If it’s not numbers, it’s just stories.” Applied to fashion, it sums it up very well. At the end of the day, it’s a business, and it needs a solid foundation of numbers, while always leaving room for risk-taking, intuition, and innovation. The metrics I consider essential arefull-price sales, weekly sell-through (the percentage sold out of what was received), stock coverage, the return rate, and gross margin. With data, you build a solid foundation for decision-making, which guides you and minimizes the margin of error.

How does product management differ when products are sold online versus in a physical store? How can we ensure that both channels reinforce each other?

The online world is a showcase open to the world, and everything that happens on your website is measurable. You receive a wealth of information from visitors and consumers, but you have only one selling point: what the customer sees on your website.

In-store, the selection is more limited. Customers explore the product, touch it, try it on, and experience it in real time, and the salesperson adds significant value to the sales process. There’s more impulse buying, although customers often arrive with a preconceived idea based on their online research. That’s why I believe both channels are complementary and reinforce each other: the website drives customers who have already done their research to the store, and the store generates online purchases from customers who already know and have tried the product. Today’s consumer is a hybrid and shops through both channels.

What does it take to successfully build and position a private label brand?

It must meet consumer needs that well-known brands fail to address: for example, a product that offers good value for money, meets a real demand, and forms a cohesive collection capable of complementing the existing product lineup. Ultimately, it must be a brand capable of coexisting in the same market space as well-known brands and carving out its own niche in the consumer’s mind. When well-developed, a private label sets the retailer apart, builds customer loyalty, and typically generates higher margins than third-party brands.

You're currently working as a fractional executive. What does this role entail, and how can it benefit fashion brands?

A fractional executive is an experienced executive who takes on an actual leadership role—for example, as CEO, sales director, or product manager—but on a part-time basis. The difference from traditional consulting is significant. I don’t just hand over a report and leave: I sit at the decision-making table, work with the team, and take responsibility for the results. This approach is particularly well-suited for small and medium-sized brands that have grown thanks to the talent and intuition of their founders and have reached a point where they need structure and to take the next step in their professional development. What this approach offers is the expertise of a senior professional applied on the scale of a small brand, without the cost or risk of hiring a full-time senior executive. It also provides an unbiased, outside perspective, speed—because you’ve likely encountered that problem before—and something that’s key for me: building capacity within the team.

What skills will make a difference in the coming years, and what advice would you give to an ISEM alumnus who wants to advance in the fashion industry?

In my view, hybrid profiles: those capable of bridging creativity, business, and operations. People who know how to make a brand succeed not only through its design, but because its business model is profitable and sustainable over time. To an ISEM alumnus, I would say to seek experience in different departments to understand the entire process. To look beyond the product and understand the connection between the magic of fashion and the bottom line. To know how to build bridges between the stores and the office. And, above all, to never forget that without customers, there is no business.