It isn’t clear to me that the BusinessWeek “Fashion Emergency At Wal-Mart” article was written by a discerning reporter experienced in retailing. The examples (such as the shoe sizing and display errors) were so unsophisticated that I wonder if Wal-Mart did itself a disservice when it set up the story with BusinessWeek. By giving BusinessWeek more appropriate information, the real issues might be worth considering. There are times when I’ve been very close to a business that has been in the news, and seen reporting that totally misses its target.

One of the recent lessons learned by modern retailers is that everyone needs to focus more on keeping up with changing consumer needs and preferences, i.e., to be more consumer centric.

I certainly agree that some of the examples in the article were pretty basic, but this is still “early days” for Wal-Mart fashion merchants, and:

>The investment in 340 people demonstrates a commitment to getting it right.

>The Wal-Mart culture is focused on continuous improvement, so we can wait and see how they strive to increase the productivity of the fashion merchants.

At this point, they are very few retailers who are successfully “walking the talk” of consumer-centric retailing, but this is one initiative that I think has a good chance of paying off over time.

“Labor intensive” vs. “Low cost” are paradoxical and a signal that cautiousness should appear. Wal-Mart executes its spartan efficiency thing quite successfully. W-M’s customers are well-tuned to shopping to W-M’s music and aren’t seeking personalized aggrandizement. And reaching out with a “fashion merchants” approach to appeal to shoppers who are not now coming into their stores seems like a confused strategic move.

I certainly buy into the idea that for Wal-Mart, with its scale, diverse locations and desire to improve their fashion image, having boots on the ground in their stores and shopping the competition is a must.

From the description, it sounds as if a major role of the fashion merchants is to concentrate on ensuring proper execution of fashion programs at the store level. I would imagine that each merchant is assigned 8-12 stores to monitor in their area.

Converting the other input, such as competitive information and opinions about fashion direction, into good, accurate data that will be useful immediately and for future seasons will be a challenge. 340 cooks in the kitchen is a big number! What is needed is a well-defined upfront process for information collection that allows for timely and ongoing distillation that will make big patterns obvious while not losing the small gems on the back end. If this is possible, the data could be useful as input for corporate decision makers.

I’ve tried to get the local WM to understand that not all stores are “equal.” In my local community there are a disproportionate number of above average height men (6′-6′ 4″+), yet the store does not stock longer inseam pants. I can take the time to find a manager and have them ordered, but they are not carried everyday. How many lost sales on Khaki’s or jeans, etc. does that add up to in a year? I at least took the time to ask; most people just shop somewhere else. My daughters prefer Target for clothes, but they shop WM occasionally. Usually the one or two “cool” items they find are OOS on size or color. I’m sure George is a great line in England, but the fabrics and cut on the clothes don’t work in small town Texas (probably why the clearance racks are always full of this merchandise at the end of the season). You’d think that WM’s Retail Link would provide some of the data I’m talking about, but apparently they want… Read more »

Fashion and Wal-Mart aren’t really compatible. The same can be said for Sears, Kmart and scores of other mass market retailers. Fashion is necessarily defined by limited availability. Limits can be imposed geographically, financially, educationally, etc. When something becomes “main stream” (consumer awareness + available to all) it is no longer fashion. No large retailer can keep up unless they develop partnerships with the trendsetter. High end department stores have been doing this for years. Their realization is that when something is “in fashion” they can sell it for top dollar. When something becomes “main stream” it is a commodity and the prospect of selling for top dollar is slim. Wal-Mart might be able to get into the fashion industry by leasing out space within their stores to “corporate designers” like Hilfiger, Lauren, Combs, etc. but the expense and expertise required to sell fashion in Wal-Mart can’t be justified. They should concentrate on good sturdy work clothes and, if anything, should look at their choice of fabrics. If they want to upgrade, I would suggest… Read more »

I see nothing wrong with the premise of this effort…trendy specialty retailers (Hot Topic, for example) pride themselves on their ability to gather store-level intelligence then quickly relay it to corporate. My recent early fall store sweep confirmed that Wal-Mart is all over it in terms of trend and execution and they have kicked early fall butt when compared with Target. Wal-Mart had all of the hot looks fully stocked and they brought it in like they believed in in – shrugs, cuffed shorts, micro minis, gauchos; not to mention the awesome effort in young men’s, a tight and right launch of Exsto at unreal prices. All collections feature topper cards that show how the looks work together (yes, Mom, your kid is supposed to wear leggings or tights under those shorts/skirts – whew!) Target on the other hand, has the left-overs from their latest Go International program (Tara Jarmon), front and center, on clearance, and with a sign threatening “Departing soon!” Deeper into the store is a hodgepodge of their “M” brands merchandised as… Read more »

There is a bottom line here and that is that high fashion and Wal-Mart do not go hand in hand. They can carry “fashionable” apparel but to try to get the public to think that it’s a high fashion retailer is off base. Wal-Mart can’t be everything to everybody. Even Target has a hard time pulling off high fashion. These are discount retailers period. You can’t have high fashion at a discounted price. Staying in their main demographic and appealing to that sense of wanting to be trendy is what they should concentrate on. I just don’t think that anyone who shops at Macy’s or Nordstrom, or any other upper end department store is going to think Wal-Mart = Clothes.