Broader offerings, revamped pl exemplify repositional approach - Apparel - ShopKo Stores - Brief Article

DSN Retailing Today, Oct, 2002

Apparel has always played an important role at ShopKo stores and, perhaps more than any other department, has constantly evolved. Even today, ShopKo's apparel business is on the verge of yet another transition.

When the retailer began pursuing its Beyond 2000 merchandising plan, all the categories in the store were realigned, including apparel. In pursuit of this new lifestyle strategy, anything that was beyond casualwear was eliminated. Dress shirts, structured clothing and formal outerwear were all removed in favor of an expanded selection of casualwear.

Plus-size apparel was added and has become one the company's best-performing businesses. ShopKo was one of the first retailers to recognize the potential in this category and has profited handsomely from the foresight.

In the 1990s, apparel was expanded at the expense of other hard lines categories, such as automotive, household paint and crafts--areas that were either severely scaled back or eliminated altogether. ShopKo had no heritage in apparel and the realignment helped build this business for the retailer.

Today, ShopKo is once again re-engineering its apparel business by consolidating private-label lines, implementing new signage and fixturing programs, and expanding its youth-oriented selection to include trendier clothes and accessories.

Kevin Easton joined the company in July as senior vp and gmm of soft lines and set about broadening the category's appeal. Last month, the company introduced a new private-label line called Bailey's Point that is meant to attract a more fashion-forward customer. "The fit and styling of the Bailey's Point brand reflects the latest trends for a casual and active lifestyle," said Easton.

The line crosses ladies, men's, boys' and girls' lines and offers more youthful fashions in each category, such as peasant tops, rugby shirts and low-rise pants in a variety of fabrics for women. Men's and boys' wear includes football jerseys, hooded fleece tops, and cargo and zip-off pants.

Bailey's Point targets a relatively new customer for ShopKo, which is making an effort to trend younger across several categories. The retailer has always offered a selection of juniors apparel, but in a much more conservative style.

According to Easton, Bailey's Point is meant to appeal to the younger, specialty store customer who is already in the store buying school supplies, sporting goods and music. The apparel selection before gave them little reason to walk across the aisle, he said.

As the company begins to grow the new Bailey's Point line, it has decided to exit its Willow Bay private-label program, but has tightened the focus of the North Crest casualwear line. Plus size remains a big business and keeping that up is very important to the company's apparel business.

Easton's new program flies in the face of Beyond 2000 tenets that dictated the retailer identify several key items and buy deep. "Essentially, we didn't turn product fast enough and we weren't delivering enough newness," said Easton. ShopKo is now trying to broaden its appeal beyond this narrow focus in an attempt to capture the specialty store customer.

Easton also is building ShopKo's children's apparel and, for the first time, the company now has a dedicated kids division rather than having several buyers scattered across product lines. Even small touches, such as making clothing labels on toddler and infantwear smaller and more comfortable, already are in effect.

Fixturing also has been altered, with walls taken down between the different departments and sightlines improved. Customers can now clearly see the entire apparel selection across categories. Whereas the company used to use physical barriers to separate lifestyle concepts, ShopKo now uses product groupings to accomplish the feat.

Accessories are now crossing over into all apparel departments. Now customers can find earrings or a necklace to go with a Bailey's Point fitted shirt without traipsing over to the accessories department.

ShopKo was and remains the only discount retailer to carry name-brand athletic apparel, including Adidas, Champion, Nike and Reebok, and it continues to be a point of differentiation for the retailer. Merchandised in a separate department or lifestyle shop, the category brings together shoes and apparel, crossing gender lines and age groups.

Of course, ShopKo's new youthful focus carries some inherent risks and the road is littered with retailers trying to stay in step with trends. But ShopKo has always been willing to experiment with building its business and differentiating itself from its rivals, and apparel is no exception.