The future of apparel

Discount Store News, August 18, 1997

The mass market has produced steep apparel sale in creases over the past decade. But as the business matures, retailers and manufactures have to develop new strategies to maintain and spur volume.

Several key industry players brainstormed about the merchandising marketing and positioning issues facing the apparel business at a recent Apparel Merchandising-sponsored roundtable.

The participants were: Skip Chaustz, senior vp/gmm, ShopKo; Haim Dabah, president, ceo, Regatta Sportswear; Angelo Lagrega, president, VF Jeanswear, mass market; Denis Lemire, executive vp, Ames; Stan Parker, vp Kidswear, Sara Lee; and Peter Thorner, chairman/ceo, Bradlees.

Q: How can mass merchants increase market share in a mature industry?

Lagrega: The box isn't getting any bigger so how you use the space is becoming more and more important. You have to decide what categories to carry and what to exit. We have to choose where we want to be dominant. What are the key items or concepts, and do a better job at that.

Lemire: I agree. That's what we're doing. At Ames we are getting out of the fashion piece and really growing things like jeans, T-shirts, casual and fleece. Those businesses are growing big time. You've really got to find your niche.

For example, we're doing a jeans wall right now, and with that we can raise that (jeans) business 20 percent. Point of purchase is very important today. Signage is very important. Also, its all marketing. The vendor and the retailer have to be better marketers today. It's not just buying it and selling it.

Dabah: I think the fact that the box is fixed (in size) is a problem. But clearly if you look at sales per square foot there's a lot of room for growth everywhere. Productivity disparity in sales per square foot among retailers is huge. There's a lot of opportunity but you have to deal with it.

The key is to find out what works for you. Here's something I heard Faith Popcorn say, 'The mass market is over. The future is about individualization.' Does that mean Wal-Mart shuts its door? No, the reality is that you have to reinvent yourself and figure a way to deal with that.

Chustz: You've got to ask yourself what you want to be when you grow up? What's your vision of what that. box is gonna look like. All of us are trying to maximize the top tier of our assortments rather than supporting the bottom tier.

You can be a dress-up store; you can be a casual store. We happen to be casual and active for mass and middle America. We try to be disciplined and not waiver at all. To get this done, the thing has. to be management directed.

Q: What is the manufacture's role?

Lagrega: One thing we can do is develop brand names. That means something to the consumer. We have a tremendous opportunity at the mass level because America shops at the mass level. But so far we are not getting the share of the shopper who is in that store already. The more we develop our brand names and equity the more credibility mass stores get for soft lines.

Parker: We know when talking to consumers that they're in the stores, but a lot of them are only shopping the hard lines section. It's not enough to just have the brand in the stores. I think that you have to let consumers know that brands are in there. Manufacturers and retailers can work together on advertising and instore merchandising so that consumers can find branded merchandise easily.

Q: What are some other opportunities?

Dabah: I think what is missing from mass retailing is a fun environment. It may be difficult to bring that idea to the entire store, but you can probably capture a small area and do it in an Old Navy kind of a formula. It works for them, there is no reason why it can't work for mass retailing.

Lagrega: I think what's happening at the department stores gives us an opportunity. They are going, with so much designer goods that there is a big opportunity for classifications to really give the customer these, dominant categories we've been talking about and give it to them in a better way at a better value.

Q: What are mass merchants doing to got hardlines customers to cross the

aisle and buy apparel?

Chustz: I think everyone is talking about data mining. That is, we're attempting to finding out what else the customers are buying when they come in to buy toothpaste or something.

Thorner: The key to getting shoppers to buy our apparel is to try and get enough compelling value to customers every week.

Dabah: From a practical point of view, you've got young moms shopping the store for hardlines or consumables. Some are fairly affluent. But that customer is traditionally not buying her own apparel in the mass market.

Category dominance is converting some consumers. She may not be ready to buy a dress, but maybe she'll pick up a great T-shirt. The problem has been that in the past the quality wasn't there. But clearly you can convert her slowly into your high-margin apparel by giving a high quality product and presenting it with the impact of consumables.

Lagrega: We have found that a lot of the time the real issue is enhancing the perception of quality. To get the hardlines customer we have to communicate our better quality. The problem is that 10 years ago, when all a mass retailer was trying to do was hit a low pricepoint, consumers got stuck with bad quality, and consumers remember