Retail Forum, LLC

I miss you, Anthropologie!

I had a wonderful opportunity to take my students to Anthropologie’s corporate offices last year. We were impressed with the size of the facilities as it consisted of ten huge old, all brick buildings that the company purchased for $1 each at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia and spent millions to convert them into the company’s corporate offices for their brands: Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, Terrain, Free People and BHLDN.

Personally, I have been a loyal customer of Anthropologie for over twenty years because it provides a unique mix of old and new, vintage to modern staples, and an overall good quality of products at a reasonable pricing level.

Over the past several years, Anthropologie’s mix of products lost its uniqueness while prices increased and quality of products decreased.

There are two crucial reasons why I believe this has happened to my beloved store. First, competition for online sales is staggering. How many retailers can compete with the likes of Amazon, Wal-Mart, H&M, Alibaba, and other big box corporations? Eighty percent of the clothes you see in the market (online and in brick-and-mortars) are basic-type garments like jeans, shirts, undergarments, socks, etc. This means that there isn’t much innovation or creativity involved into the making or continuation of these types of clothes—repeat, repeat year after year—change colors or fabrics. So, as customers seek for the cheapest prices for the same types of clothing, staples or cash cow items from more specialized stores like Anthropologie are lost to easy, more cheaply priced retailers like H&M.

To counter the loss of sales of its staple merchandise, Anthropologie began to raise its prices, especially on its trendier products.

This brings me to my second point—an increase in price needs to be justified by offering products that are desirable, unique, and have good quality. What was once a market place for quirky, fun, retro-inspired merchandise has now become a water-down version of itself from yesteryear.

If Anthropologie wants to continue to be a specialized retailers that caters to the 30-45 female demographics, it must deliver with regard to product offerings, pricing levels that match both quality and aesthetics—unique and creative products to its core customers. Stay true to what the brand represented, and stay loyal to the company’s core consumers. Stay focused.

Look at ModCloth.com; an online retailer that offers only retro-inspired clothing and accessories, including home goods. You don’t have to be a loyal customer to understand its core mission or core consumers. Its prices are competitive and consistently on point.

Specialized retailers are essential to our retail market place because they provide goods and services that differentiate big box store merchandise. They also offer an emotional experience to the things we purchase so that we may value them a lot more than the $9.99 special you can find anywhere.

Whether you are a small, or large retailer, specialized or not, or you are a consumer, we need to pay attention to what’s happening in the industry because the products that we make, sell, or buy have longer lasting impacts than yesterday’s discounted prices.

Therefore, my dear Anthropologie, I sincerely hope you can revamp your product offerings to reflect your core consumers and provide the same kinds of unique chicness you once did. Stay true to your vision!