Walmart Hopes Children’s Clothing Increases Fashion Credibility

Walmarts clothing ambitions are increasingly focused on the youngest consumers, children, as the retailer tries to expand its apparel market share through new clothing lines and collaborations.

The new Free Assembly Kids collection, launched last week, includes nearly 50 styles priced between $6 and $36, and follows a partnership signed earlier this year with brand tween Justice to add clothing and accessories to Walmart.com and about half of U.S. store retailers.

These attempts to appeal to kids’ fashion sense, particularly the introduction of Free Assembly Kids, have been seen by some as Walmart’s answer to the Target Cat & Jack line, as well as a shot at Kohls, Old Navy, and other category leaders. Walmart has also spent the past year strengthening its adult clothing options, launching men’s and women’s clothing Free Assembly last September and bringing in top celebrity designer Brandon Maxwell as creative director for two of its internal private label brands.

“Through our ongoing strategy to expand our reach for our customers, we have shown that we are serious about setting Walmart as a fashion destination,” said Denise Incandela, senior vice president of women’s group, high-end and online brands at Walmart, when Free Assembly launched.

Fight Amazon

Even with new fashion brands, the Arkansas heavyweights have struggled to make serious progress in capturing more clothing consumers and clothing shopping. Since early 2020, according to PYMNTS data, Walmart’s market share surged only briefly in the spring and early summer of last year, shortly after the pandemic began, before dropping to its lowest point in the second quarter of 2021.

Source: PYMNTS data

Read more: Amazon, Walmart See Apparel Share Drops as Style Returns to the Forefront

To be sure, Amazon clothing and apparel sales were also slow to take off when it made a concerted effort to get into fashion in 2016, but last year, nearly 16% of consumer apparel spent six percentage points compared to 2019.

Source: PYMNTS data

To be sure, some of the growth is likely to come from accelerating eCommerce adoption over the past 18 months, but Amazon has also made strategic moves over the last few years positioning it to take advantage of consumers’ digital craze, including Amazon’s launch. Prime Wardrobe and personal shopping service.

Related: Amazon’s Extreme Makeover Pays With Entire Ecosystem Embracing Fashion

Great Wardrobe Refresh

The NPD Group said the U.S. apparel market was up 10% compared to 2019, generating $13.3 million more in revenue in the first eight months of the year than two years ago, and Mastercard SpendingPulse also reported earlier this week that apparel sales were up 56% year-on-year. -on-year in September and up 15.6% on a two-year stack.

Read more: Mastercard: September Retail Sales Growth Led by Apparel, Jewelry

But as consumers continue to refresh their wardrobes after their pandemic solitude, they may seek out retailers better known for their style expertise. Levi Strauss & Co., for example, saw revenue jump 156% in the second quarter of the year and 41% in the third, while Nordstrom reported a 101% year-on-year jump in second-quarter sales, although net sales fell 6% compared to 2019 .

Related: Consumers Keep Looking For Refreshed Wardrobe, Increasing Levi Strauss Sales

Also: Nordstrom Prepared For Scenarios Amid Continuing Uncertainty

Besides, this isn’t Walmart’s first attempt to get more fashionable. In 2011, the retail giant closed an office in New York’s garment district and recalled advertising in Vogue magazine when the initiative didn’t go as planned. And in 2019, Walmart sold ModCloth, an online fashion site designed for young women, more than two years after acquiring it because the business was not profitable.

See: Walmart Finds Buyers For ModCloth

This time around, Walmart says it’s had good feedback on its growing fashion choices, and the fact that adding children’s clothing to its established adult line may be a sign that the box store chain is willing to continue investing in the space. provision. But the odds depend on how well Walmart can carry out its vision and whether consumers have room in their closets.