Business Insider/Mary Hanbury
- The women’s underwear market is undergoing rapid transformation in the US. Longtime industry leader Victoria’s Secret is increasingly finding itself under pressure as new brands enter the market and chip away at its market share.
- Its parent company, L Brands, reported fourth-quarter earnings last month and announced that dozens of Victoria’s Secret stores would close this year.
- Meanwhile, American Eagle’s Aerie brand has achieved explosive growth and is opening stores.
- We visited Victoria’s Secret, Pink, and Aerie to see how the shopping experience compared. We found one to be far superior, signaling a new era for the lingerie market.
The women’s underwear market is going through a period of rapid change, and longtime industry leader Victoria’s Secret is increasingly coming under pressure as new brands chip away at its market share.
Read more: These up-and-coming lingerie brands should terrify Victoria’s Secret
American Eagle’s Aerie is one of those competitors, and it’s becoming a bigger threat every day as it continues to grow at a rapid rate.
We visited Victoria’s Secret, Pink, and Aerie to see how the shopping experience compared at each of these stores. Here’s what we found:
Our first stop was at a Victoria’s Secret store in Manhattan’s busy Soho shopping district.
Business Insider/Mary Hanbury
Our first impressions were pretty good. There was a lot of inventory on display, but it was neatly laid out.
Business Insider/Mary Hanbury
There were also no sale signs. Wall Street has been very critical of discounting in recent years. One analyst said he believed Victoria’s Secret’s sister brand Pink was on the "precipice of collapse," because of the level of promotions being run there.
In a recent call with investors, CFO Stuart Burgdoerfer addressed this but said that it will "take a little bit of time" to reduce promotional levels.
As well as scaling back on promotions, Burgdoerfer said in the company’s most recent earnings call that it is looking at all aspects of the brand’s marketing. "We are taking a fresh, hard look at everything," he said. "Everything is on the table."
Business Insider/Mary Hanbury
Victoria’s Secret has frequently been criticized for its overtly sexual in-store ads and its racy runway shows, especially in the wake of #MeToo.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
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- More than 5,300 stores are closing in 2019 as the retail apocalypse drags on — here’s the full list
SEE ALSO: Aerie is homing in on Victoria’s Secret’s biggest weakness
Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Mary Hanbury)