The Wednesday Wall Street Journal reports thatRetailers including JC Penney Co., Target Corp. and Kohl's Corp. have discovered that fashionable underwear for women is a hot trend. To cash in on it, they are launching lingerie lines or giving old ones a makeover or redecorating dressing rooms and offering professional fitting services. Other companies, including Chico's FAS Inc., American Eagle Outfitters Inc. and Charming Shoppes Inc.'s Lane Bryant, have created stand-alone lingerie stores.("Retailers' Panty Raid On Victoria's Secret", p. B1). According to the story, US sales of women's underwear grew at a rate of 10% last year, making it the second-fastest growing apparel category after handbags. Despite the growth in the category, Victoria's Secret appears to be vulnerable: while net sales were up 14.8% last year, sales at stores open more than a year were up less than 2%, which indicates that Victoria's Secret is primarily fueled by opening new stores. As we have seen from other retailers (think Gap, along with many more), this is often a recipe for trouble.
The retailers are hoping to steal some thunder from the Limited Brands Inc.'s Victoria's Secret chain, which has dominated fashion lingerie in the U.S. for many years.
Not being a consumer of women's underwear, I have no particular knowledge or expertise in the subject. I can say, however, that as one who is in a major mall four or five times a week, Victoria's Secret bags are probably the most common ones that I see mall patrons carrying. It's possible that all those bags contain token purchases, although I doubt it. I will also say that there is a fundamental difference in presentation between Victoria's Secret and Kohl's, and I doubt that the typical Victoria's Secret customer will shift allegiance and purchasing dollars to Kohl's any time soon. Of course, there is the possibility that she will graduate to La Perla, which the story says that Bloomingdale's is expanding its selection of and which I find much more interesting than any of the other ventures and brands mentioned in the story.
3 comments:
I think a lot of designers use lingerie as a source of licensing revenue. All of the big names have them. Macy's recently dropped Vera Wang's lingerie line after she signed a deal to do a line at Kohl's -- I think that was seen a declaration of business war.
As a lingerie lover, and a major bargain hunter, I can make a couple of comments on this:
Victoria's Secret seems to be aiming at a much younger clientele these days with their "Pink" line. Yuck. This stuff looks likes 70s gym gear, and not at all what I consider sexy.
Target, on the other hand, has been expanding their in house lines, and suceeding quite well. They are hitting both the younger Pink crowd as well as old fuddy duddies like me who like retro styling and more generous sizes.
Kohl's I dislike -- it's a department store with bad service -- so I don't usually check it out. They've been talking about design partnerships with Vera Wang (not just for lingerie) for years now, and I've never seen it materialize. (Target, on the other hand, manages to get their designer partnerships in the stores within 6, and often 3, months of the announcement.)
I think the time is ripe for Target to do a lingerie only designer partnership. Agent Provocateur for Target???? :)
The Limited used to have another lingerie store as well, which for the life of me I can't remember the name of, but it was more closely associated w/ the Limited then V.S., more like Structure. Anyway, I don't think they have it anymore, one would assume it cut into V.S. profits (like Old Navy w/ Gap) or that it just didn't have the cachet of V.S.
Cacique, that's what it was called. It looks like it got absorbed into Lane Bryant, so is now exclusively plus size lingerie.
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