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Abercrombie Losing the Juniors Market?
By admins | May 7, 2009
The ever popular juniors market is undergoing the same sort of recession slump as its big sister the women’s market. Juniors, often categorized as ages 14 to 24, is an extremely desirable demographic for designers and manufactures. These girls love to get their shop on! They spend much of their time at the mall spending their parents’ money and as they get older they’ll carve out their own niche as young adults spending their first salaries. Many of these consumers stay loyal to the same brands throughout college and into their mid 20’s. This is a huge target market, which like most customers has suddenly turned their back on spending and no one is being hurt worse than Abercrombie and Fitch.
For those of you working in the juniors market, Abercrombie has been the gold standard to which many brands aspire. Popular for their laid back collegiate vibe and slightly higher price point they have tried to market themselves as the “luxury” brand for juniors. As the economy began to crash and all other junior brands began to slash prices Abercrombie refused to budge. Abercrombie announced that in order to maintain their prestigious image they would not cut prices or blaringly advertise sales. Not only has Abercrombie not adapted to our new economy but their overall aesthetic has not been updated much in the last decade. The frayed cargo shorts, skinny boy tanks, and over priced hoodies can now be found at most juniors mall stores.
So what are the results of this business plan? Not surprisingly Abercrombie is losing out with their core customers. In March they recorded a 34% drop in sales. While many retailers are suffering Abercrombie is posting the worst performance of all mall retailers. Juniors’ stores with specialized merchandise like Hot Topic or lowered priced “Abercrombie-style” products like Aeropostale are showing slight gains. All in all, to get the juniors market spending you need desirable, updated product at a competitive price point; and Abercrombie fails on both counts.
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Topics: fashion, retail | 1 Comment » 
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May 7th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
I can’t believe they were refusing changing with the economy, of course they would suffer. Hope they start to make changes before it’s too late.