Every time a parent and child shop for clothing, there’s a battle between the holder of the purse strings and the (eventual) wearer of the clothes. The adult in the room needs the apparel to provide good value for the money, while the kid may be more focused on fashion value — no matter if it falls apart after a dozen washes. Depending on your family dynamics, the fight can be quiet or loud — but no matter the volume, it will take place eventually.
The Children’s Place, which prides itself on being the only U.S. specialty retailer offering head-to-toe apparel for children aged zero to 12, wants this to be less of a fight and more of a negotiation — one in which the child is an active participant. Acknowledging that “the child is influencing [shopping] choices a lot more, and a lot earlier in age,” Smeeta Khetarpaul, SVP and Head of Marketing at The Children’s Place, tied this societal movement to the retailer’s new “It’s a Yes Day” brand platform.
“We want to empower these kids at an earlier age and help them learn to make decisions,” said Khetarpaul in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “Of course, the parent is still in the decision mix, but ‘It’s a Yes Day’ is about both of them coming together.”
The Children’s Place is counting on the new platform to help address ongoing challenges by raising awareness among shoppers (both young and old alike). During the retailer’s Q3 2025, which ended Nov. 1, 2025, sales decreased 13%, dropping from $390.2 million to $339.5 million. For the first nine months of its fiscal year, sales declined 10%, from $977.7 million to $879.6 million.
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The legacy retailer, established in 1969, also is looking to its 499 brick-and-mortar stores, which had generated 2% growth in comparable sales for Q3, as a key element in its comeback. “We opened five new stores during the third quarter, with another 11 store openings planned for the fourth quarter,” said Muhammad Umair, President and CEO of The Children’s Place in a December 2025 statement.
“Looking ahead, we plan to open an additional 15 to 20 new stores in the first half of fiscal year 2026, ahead of our critical back-to-school season to drive revenue growth and profitability, with more store openings in the back-half of fiscal year 2026 and beyond,” Umair added. “We also plan to refresh our store layouts, and in conjunction with our revamped My Place Rewards loyalty program, we are excited for the enhanced experience this will create for our new and existing customer file.”
Khetarpaul, who has been with The Children’s Place for less than a year but also has held top marketing positions at companies including Crocs, Danone, BrightFarms and Nestlé, shared details about the retailer’s plans to make any day, and every day, a “Yes” day when it comes to kids’ clothes.
Retail TouchPoints: How do you see the “It’s a Yes Day” platform building on the bigger role kids are playing in deciding what they wear?
Smeeta Khetarpaul: It’s the kid who is driving the “want” today; they’re the decision-maker on fashion, and the parent is the purchaser. The “It’s a Yes Day” platform is designed to be a place that gets kids excited about the product as they own their identity. We also want to give parents the comfort, convenience and confidence of great product at a great value, but we all know that if the kid is very excited [about a purchase], the parent is more confident.
In a broader sense, “It’s a Yes Day” also represents our brand philosophy. Saying “yes” in life generally opens opportunities, and we’re saying “yes” to kids expressing themselves. Even in the creative we’ll be using, we’re picturing open spaces, blue skies and kids moving, showing kids as their joyful selves as opposed to models that are posed.
We also want to showcase what authentic childhood is, including the funny, messy details and the funny things they see. The ultimate benefit of this is confidence for the kids, and then confidence for the parent that they are making the right decision.
RTP: How will The Children’s Place be leveraging this new brand positioning?
Khetarpaul: It’s going to provide a strategic foundation across marketing, digital and retail going forward. We see “It’s a Yes Day” as an operating model showing how to touch the customer at every touch point. It will impact our customer experience — how they feel when they come into a store, where we’re focused on providing a kid-first environment. It will also guide the products that we’re retailing, and overall help us tell better product stories and create better experiences and activities.
We’ll be launching this in phases, starting with creative assets across retail and our website. Then we’ll be talking to the customer and do more storytelling about our head-to-toe messaging. We want to meet the consumer where they are, which is often on social media with their whole families.
Additionally, we’re building a new influencer strategy with this new ethos, talking about how they feel about The Children’s Place brand and the shopping experience. The goal is to be as consistent as possible across all touch points, and also to be able to iterate [as we progress] to get better and better. We’ll also see creative refreshes for periods like back-to-school and holiday that will double down on that “It’s a Yes Day” expression as we try to make it more and more authentic.
Additionally, this year, there will be specific brand partnerships [supporting “It’s a Yes Day”] coming down the pike.
RTP: What impact do you see this new platform having on The Children’s Place’s business?
Khetarpaul: Ultimately, any brand positioning refresh must drive business. I see the opportunity here as shifting our marketing from short-term, transaction-driven messaging to a much more long-term customer connection and community-building experience that fuels the entire ecosystem. The goal is to build high-quality organic demand over that long term. It’s been a labor of love to come to this point, and I’m also very proud of getting The Children’s Place to this point in such a short time.
