December 4, 2008, - 2:31 pm
Chickification Nation: Guess Who Retailers Are Relying on to Save the Day? . . .
By Debbie Schlussel
. . . Not women, but the “new women”:
Can men rescue the holiday shopping season this year? Retailers hope so. Many stores have remodeled, expanded their men’s departments and added new products and new gifts in an effort to keep men spending through the downturn.
Bloomingdale’s renovated and expanded the men’s tailored clothing floor at its New York flagship. Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Macy’s say they’re carrying more men’s goods this holiday season. J. Crew this month opened its second men’s-only store, in Paramus, N.J., just months after opening its first, in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood. In recent months, designer men’s-only stores have opened in London, from Dolce & Gabbana and Lanvin, and in Los Angeles, from Salvatore Ferragamo. Cheap-chic retailer H&M added a higher-priced men’s collection in September. . . . Luxury-goods makers have a lot riding on men this season.
For the first nine months of the difficult retail-calendar year that began Feb. 3, sales of men’s apparel have risen 1% to $4.3 billion from year-earlier levels, according to MasterCard SpendingPulse, a MasterCard Inc. service that tracks spending in all payment types. Sales of women’s apparel, by contrast, have fallen 6% to $15.1 billion in the period, MasterCard SpendingPulse data shows. That underscores several years of stronger apparel-sales growth for men than for women and upends the industry’s generally accepted idea of men as unwilling shoppers who ignore trends and rarely spend on impulse.
When consumers cut back on spending in October, the men’s category took a hit. But the 8.3% drop in sales for that month wasn’t as steep as the 18.2% dive that women’s apparel took, MasterCard SpendingPulse says.
Last week, when Saks Inc. posted a wider-than-expected third-quarter loss, the luxury retailer cited contemporary men’s apparel and men’s footwear as areas of strength. The men’s business also outperformed other categories at Bloomingdale’s, Chief Executive Michael Gould said at a conference hosted by Emanuel Weintraub Associates late last month. “We have great hopes for the men’s business,” he added.
It used to be that women drove spending and most of the ads and sales were aimed at them. But this new attention to men is not necessarily a good thing. The upturn in men’s clothing and luxury goods sales is due to a trend I watch on this site–the chickification of men. They’re becoming more trend- and fashion-conscious. While I’m sure some of this is due to spending by gay males, they’ve remained a constant and the uptake is due to the feminization of America’s men, causing more and more of them to be fashion slaves. Yup, men are the new women, more and more and more.
[M]en have grown more fashion-conscious and continue to update their wardrobes with slimmer silhouettes and to replace items that wear out. Women, by contrast, have more clothes in the closet that they can rotate and feel less need to buy more. . . .
Sales of men’s apparel and accessories can produce higher profit margins for retailers. One reason, says Harry Bernard, senior executive vice president with retail consultants Colton Bernard Inc., is new merchandise doesn’t arrive as often, putting less pressure on retailers to cut prices and clear out goods to make room for new styles. Men tend to be “less price-sensitive than women are when it comes to buying,” adds Sanjay Srikanth, a partner at consulting firm A.T. Kearney.
Hmmm . . . Maybe Oprah can do an “Oprah’s Favorite Things for Men” show, complete with moisturizer, mani/pedi kits, and pastel nailpolish.
Say Debbie, in all your research, did you happen to come across any good deals on Manbags?
Jimmy Lewis
SCS, Michigan
Blog: http://rougerevival.blogspot.com/
Jimmy on December 4, 2008 at 3:23 pm