To stack up against the competition of Amazon and Target, Walmart recently released four new private clothing brands that could make the retailer a popular choice among budget-conscious fashionistas. At least, that’s what Walmart hopes will happen.
According to USA Today, Walmart created the four new labels to aid its strategy to meet the style needs of their millions of customers. The four new lines include Time and Tru, a new women’s line, Terra and Sky, a plus-size women’s line, Wonder Nation, a children’s line, and George, their previously existing men’s line which they plan to build upon.
If you are familiar with shopping at Walmart, you’re probably familiar with their extremely low prices. They pride themselves on having the lowest prices anywhere. The brand became extremely popular across the country by offering these prices on a wide array of products. Clothing is already one of the company’s prime categories, but until now they haven’t been able to stack up against the online giant Amazon or the popular store Target. Partly, that’s because people associate Walmart with low-cost items, which doesn’t exactly inspire confidence when choosing where you want to shop for clothing.
Farla Efros, president of HRC Retail Advisory, spoke with USA Today about the store’s past with fashion.
“Walmart has not had any real success as the lead in fashion,” Efros said.”…the only way to stand out from Amazon is to have exclusive product that cannot be found on Amazon.”
Over the past few months, Walmart has been doing whatever they can to compete with Amazon, and not just when it comes to fashion. It increased the number of products they sell online to an incredible 70 million, and back in January, the company announced it will offer audiobooks and ebooks in the United States for the first time.
Over the last 12 months, Walmart was the only retail company out there to have more footwear and clothing shoppers than Amazon. Now, the closures of retailers including The Limited and JCPenney have helped the company by leaving billions of dollars of apparel spending up for the taking.
With the introduction of new brands to Walmart’s existing clothing department, fashion brands such as their popular White Stag will soon be fading away. Each piece in their new lines will cost anywhere from $5.00 to $30.00, and each brand has its own page on the Walmart website.
A recent survey shows women spend more time than men picking out outfits. Approximately 12% of women said that they spend 11 to 20 minutes selecting the perfect look, compared to just 5% of men. And while Walmart may not offer many luxury clothing options, they have a customer base in the millions. With the latest releases, Walmart hopes their new brands and prices will make choosing clothes a lot easier for those customers.
