RETAILERS STRUT INTO WORLD OF FASHION
Less brand loyalty stokes the likes of Amazon to create private labels
NEW YORK A few months ago, Amazon.com Inc. representatives met with fashion designer Jackie Wilson as part of the expansion of Amazon’s surging apparel business.
They wanted her to make a knit top for women that would be sold under an Amazon-owned private label. And they wanted the fabric to feel heavy and high-quality — attributes long associated with name-brand attire.
“They are not concerned at all about how many units they sell, and they’re not focused on margins,” says Wilson, whose company in Syracuse, N.Y., makes clothing for Kohl’s, American Eagle Outfitters, and J.C. Penney Co. “They’re concerned about customer satisfaction. They want five-star reviews.”
Wilson’s knit top is in the vanguard of a private-label push that’s upended the US$275-billion U.S. apparel sector.
Amazon, Wal-Mart, Target and other big retailers are beefing up their clothing lines to grab shoppers whose loyalty to established brands such as Gap and Nike has waned. Even supermarket chain Kroger is getting in on the act, attracted by profit margins that far exceed what they earn on bananas and paper towels.
This year Amazon will leapfrog T.J. Maxx owner TJX Cos. and Macy’s to become the secondbiggest seller of apparel and footwear in the U.S., Wells Fargo estimates.
In some categories — like the active wear that Americans increasingly wear all day — private labels combined account for 20 per cent of the market, according to researcher NPD. That makes store brands in aggregate larger than any single brand, which should strike fear in the executive suites of Lululemon Athletica, Nike, and Under Armour. “Active wear is going like wildfire,” Wilson says, for the simple reason that “you don’t have to try on spandex pants. If I was in those categories, I would be worried.”
Store-brand apparel is nothing new. The Sears Roebuck catalogue first offered clothing in 1894, and Wal-Mart’s Faded Glory house brand began life in 1972 as a department-store label. But for years, private-label apparel was dull and dowdy, no match for branded threads.
That started to change in 1990 when British supermarket chain Asda Stores asked fashion designer George Davies to create an exclusive clothing line. The result, George, was a hit in the U.K. and caught the attention of Loblaws Cos. Ltd., which in 2004 hired Joe Mimran, co-founder of the Club Monaco chain, to do the same. His Joe Fresh expanded into stand-alone stores and a partnership with J.C. Penney in the U.S. But the brand didn’t click with Penney’s shoppers, prompting Mimram’s departure in 2015 and an overhaul of the business.
Despite its recent struggles, Joe Fresh “was a nice surprise to other retailers who said, ‘Hey, if they can do this, we can, too’,” says Adheer Bahulkar, a partner at consultants A.T. Kearney.
As retailers stepped up investments, connected with Asian suppliers, and poached fashionistas to head up in-house design teams, the established brands stumbled under the weight of declining mall traffic and heaps of unsold inventory. Brand loyalty began to crater.
Under Armour has been hit by slowing growth in athletic footwear, J.Crew Group has struggled to reinvent itself after the exit of longtime CEO Mickey Drexler, and Gap’s only bright spot lately is its off-price Old Navy chain. Even mighty Nike this year announced its first major layoffs since the financial crisis.
“Every new generation is becoming less and less brandloyal,” Bahulkar says. “Millennials don’t care as much about logos. They will buy anything from anywhere at any price point, and that is a big change.”
The erosion of brand loyalty has been a boon for Target, the cheap-chic retailer that made its name in apparel via partnerships with top designers Isaac Mizrahi and Jason Wu more than a decade ago. It’s leveraged that success to create its own private labels in recent years, most notably Cat & Jack, a kids’ apparel line whose sales surpassed $2 billion after a little more than a year on the shelves.
Target’s winning formula has emboldened Wal-Mart, which recently hired a veteran of Saks Fifth Avenue and Ralph Lauren Corp. to boost its fashion game.
Apparel shopping these days often begins with an online search, and research from consultants Bain & Co. finds that a surprising number of those queries don’t mention a brand at all — consumers just enter “yoga pants” and see what comes up.
Amazon is capitalizing on this in two ways. First, despite its private-label push, it’s simultaneously trying to create legitimacy as a destination for fashion by luring established brands that want to improve their digital sales.
Amazon has also introduced a bevy of private labels in categories that include shirts and sportswear, where fit and function — plus the convenience of free shipping — are often more important than the latest fashions.