Capturing The Teen Shopper's Heart…Fast!
Posted by casey on 07-07-2008
We included Women's Wear Daily's article Retailing's Sweet Spot: Stores Look to Lure Millennial Generation in Wednesday's essentials, and, as a former shopgirl and current fashion mag intern [editor's note: Casey is interning at Teen Vogue this summer], I've been dying to expand on it.
The millennial generation is changing the face of fashion as we know it. Tweens and teens are young, individualistic, and many are armed with more disposable income than they know what to do with. So they shop. And when they see something they like on a favorite celebrity, in a designer boutique, or on the runway, they want it now - not six months down the road, which used to be the only option. Stores like H&M, Forever 21, and even Nordstrom are forced to have a trend turn-around rate of a month, because if teens can't find what they want at the moment, they'll forget about it. If they spot Miley in a certain dress in this week's US Weekly, they want to be able to stop in a store and buy it immediately; they won't be satisfied finding a specific article of clothing two months later. By then, it will be long forgotten and replaced with the desire for a pair of shorts spotted on Nicole Richie just a few days ago.
They have high expectations for wearing clothes found on their favorite TV shows, in their favorite magazines, and in candid images of their favorite celebrities. From the article:
The Millennials also aspire to look as if they stepped off the set of "Gossip Girl," the hit series about New York's Upper East Side adolescents with adult-size sins and pocketbooks. Fashion brands are jockeying to get on the show. Eighties-era Jordache Jeans boasted a coup of being featured on "Gossip Girl" at least twice. Multiple appearances on "Gossip Girl" paid off for Foley + Corinna. Socialite-turned-actress Lydia Hearst swung a $528 Jet Setter Jr. tote in white leather on her arm while flirting with Ed Westwick's character, and Taylor Momsen's character sat demurely on steps with the $444 City Clutch in an opalescent fuchsia by her fishnet stocking-clad feet.
As a result, Shopbop.com sold out of the City Clutch. The New York-based fashion brand also tallied an estimated $15,000 in sales at a recent trunk show in Short Hills, N.J., where the hostess' 17-year-old daughter "kept asking for the purses that were on the show," said Jana Gold, Foley + Corinna's director of marketing and publicity. "We really lucked out."
Although Women's Wear Daily doesn't go as far as to predict fashion's future, I think in the next few years we'll have the ability to instantly shop via websites from magazines, TV shows and movies. A few outlets have started rolling out similar capabilities - The "Gossip Girl" site lets users know where they can find similar, albeit budget-friendly versions of many featured products — and other millennial favorites would be crazy not to hop on board.