Itsy-bitsy wallets a big fad
Women’s trend comes amid shrinking bags
Women’s wallets are shrinking. No, that’s not a metaphor for the amount of cash they’re toting around. Their physical wallets are getting smaller.
They’re slimming down because women are buying more compact handbags and because women don’t have to lug around as many cards or thick wads of cash. Fashion trends are pushing shoppers toward sleek, crossbody bags and itsybitsy satchels, and, with phones taking over the role of such physical items as membership cards, loyalty cards, business cards and even credit cards and cash, there’s no need or desire for big, bulging wallets. This means a shift toward more petite wallet designs: zip-around pouches, thin billfold styles, little leather card cases and so on.
“It’s natural that items are getting smaller,” said Jaime Cohn-Barr, an editor at fashion-trend forecasting firm WGSN. “People are needing to carry less.”
Historically, women’s wallets haven’t seen much change.
In fact, most small leather goods take a back seat to their larger, more visible brethren. They’re not presented front and center in retail stores and are often buried in the accessories tab at online shops.
Handbags, meanwhile, are overhauled each season, with flashy new hardware and creative silhouettes.
But women’s wallets are now getting major adjustments to meet the demand for smaller designs.
Fashion’s bigwigs have noticed and adjusted accordingly.
“Items are getting smaller. People are needing to carry less.” — Jaime Cohn-Barr, of fashion forecasting firm WGSN
John Idol, chief executive of Michael Kors, referred to the phenomenon recently in a conference call with analysts. At Kors, he said, “much smaller” wallets are selling faster than larger ones.
“Money pieces now are getting smaller because, again, as more things end up on your phone, you need less things in your wallet,” Idol said. “So that’s just a fact.”
Idol pointed to a two-trend in which consumers are also veering toward smaller handbags.
That gives Kors a chance to upsell its customers. Shoppers downsizing their bags have no choice but to find a correspondingly tiny wallet that will fit. Following the logic further, that upselling is necessary for the retailer: Smaller bags (and wallets) are cheaper, so stores have to push sales of additional items instead of selling just one large $600 satchel.
“We’ve got really welltrained associates, and these associates, quite frankly, know how to upsell in terms of multiple items to get that transaction value up, which is helping in our total conversion rate inside the store,” Idol said.
It seems women’s wallets will keep getting smaller as bags continue to shrivel.
Cohn-Barr said she expects to see lots of micro-, kitten-sized handbags emerge this fall, although it’s unclear exactly how miniature they can get. Some, such as Fendi’s micro-lambskin “Baguettes,” are already too small to fit an iPhone 6 Plus.