NEW YORK – At the peak of their earnings and spending power, women age 35 and older are a huge and potentially lucrative market for the nation’s apparel merchants.
So big retailers including Gap Inc. and Gymboree Corp. are trying to cater to these shoppers, launching new store chains with clothes that are trendy but not designed for teens.
Gap plans a new store concept in 2005 that will cater to this group, its first new chain in a decade. And Gymboree, the children’s clothing retailer, is trying out a new chain, Janeville, with 10 stores. Even Chico’s FAS Inc., already a marketing success with the 35-plus customer, is testing Soma, a chain of lingerie stores.
“Up until recently, this has been an underserved market,” said James Chung, president of Reach Advisors Inc., a Boston-based marketing strategy and research firm. “Very shortly, you are going to see a saturated market.”
The new stores are opening as major department stores expand their fashion collections from designers including Oscar de la Renta and Michael Kors, hoping to win back the 35-plus shoppers the stores abandoned six years ago in favor of teens. And discounter Target is developing its own fashion lines for these customers.
The industry is paying close attention to how Gap will fare with it new concept. Gap officials declined to say what the new stores will be named, but said they will be distinct from the company’s three established brands, which also include Banana Republic and Old Navy.
“This is a group that we still have an opportunity to service,” said Jordan Benjamin, a company spokeswoman.
The challenge for retailers is to woo this generation with stylish clothing that fits but doesn’t remind them that they’re getting older.
“I don’t want the ‘older Gap.’ I like what they have now,” said Judith Lederman, who said she’s in her early 40s. She likes to shop for jeans and leather jackets in department store teen sections with her 12-year-old daughter because she feels that the clothes aimed at her age group are too conservative.
The Scarsdale, N.Y., resident likes some items at Chico’s, but hasn’t seen Janeville or Soma.
But Erin Geisler, 35, of Austin, Texas, said she would be very interested in checking out Gap’s new concept as well as Janeville and Soma. “I am not frumpy. I think I am hip, but I don’t want clothing for 24-year-olds,” she said.
Selling to the over-35 group is less tricky than marketing to teens, who keep wanting new styles and don’t stick to any one store, said Marshal Cohen, senior industry analyst at NPD Group Inc., a market research company based in Port Washington, N.Y. Older shoppers tend to be more loyal to their stores, and have more money to spend.
Female customers ages 35-54 spent $30.7 billion in the 12 months ending in July, up 1.7 percent in the year-ago period, according to NPD. That compares with $11.85 billion spent by the 13-17 age group, a 10.3 percent decline from the previous period. Sales of overall female apparel rose a meager 0.4 percent to $93.12 billion in the 12-month period ended July.
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