Walmart is expanding its fashion business with Scenario, a new women’s clothing brand offering current styles at prices designed for the retailer’s value-conscious customers.
The collection includes jeans, dresses, tops, footwear, handbags, belts, scarves and jewelry. Many clothing items are priced below $25, while shoes and larger accessories generally sell for approximately $20 to $40. Selected pieces are available in extended sizes up to 4X.
Scenario represents Walmart’s latest attempt to convince shoppers that its clothing departments can offer more than inexpensive basics. The brand features wide-leg and barrel jeans, textured tops, seasonal prints, faux-leather accessories and other designs influenced by current fashion trends.
The strategy could carry significant financial value for Walmart. Groceries bring customers into its stores regularly, but food typically produces narrow profit margins. Clothing and accessories can generate stronger returns, particularly when they are sold under a retailer’s own private label.
A customer who adds a $25 pair of jeans, a handbag or a pair of shoes to a grocery trip becomes considerably more valuable to Walmart. Because Scenario is a Walmart-controlled brand, the company can oversee its designs, pricing and distribution while avoiding direct comparisons with identical products sold by competitors.
Walmart has spent several years expanding and repositioning its clothing business. Its existing portfolio includes Time and Tru, Free Assembly, Scoop and No Boundaries, along with limited collections involving designers, celebrities and entertainment properties. Scenario gives the retailer another label that can target changing fashion preferences without altering its established brands.
The company is also using artificial intelligence to reduce the time required to identify trends and develop new merchandise. Walmart says its Trend-to-Product system can shorten the traditional fashion-production process by as much as 18 weeks, allowing certain products to move from an emerging trend to store shelves within six to eight weeks.
Speed is especially important in fashion because styles can rise and disappear before traditionally produced merchandise reaches stores. A faster process can help Walmart respond while a particular color, fabric or design is still popular and reduce the risk of being left with large quantities of unsold inventory.
For consumers, Scenario means greater access to fashionable clothing at prices closer to Walmart’s traditional value range. For the retailer, it is an opportunity to capture more of the money its existing customers currently spend at Target, Amazon, department stores and fast-fashion competitors.
Walmart does not need to transform every grocery customer into a dedicated fashion shopper for Scenario to succeed. Convincing even a portion of its enormous customer base to purchase one additional clothing item or accessory could produce substantial sales while making each store visit more profitable.
JBizNews Desk | Bentonville, Arkansas
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