We know from thousands of conversations at VibrantNation.com that Baby Boomer women share a fervent desire to find fashion designers, brands, and retailers that can genuinely meet their needs. The interest our members show when another woman reveals a new discovery confirms not only the power of word-of-mouth marketing among this demographic but also how rarely they come across options that really work for them.
Frustration and a creative response
We learned a lot more in a recent fashion survey answered by more than 600 smart, successful, Vibrant Women 50+.
What did we learn? First of all, Boomer women are desperately frustrated with bad service at clothing retailers. 84% described retail salespeople as badly trained, invisible, indifferent or outright rude. Only 16% said that salespeople are generally well-trained and helpful.
The fashion industry must underestimate this frustration, just as it underestimates how completely a tech-savvy generation of Vibrant Woman has responded by shifting their clothes-shopping online. 2 out of 3 Boomer women reported that they do some of their clothes-buying online. 13% do all of their clothes shopping online.
Not enough answers
We also asked women what retailers and designers did meet their needs, and the responses again suggested that the fashion industry just doesn’t get it.
The retailers and fashion brands most frequently mentioned were those that have the broadest distribution: retailers like Nordstrom and Macy’s, brands like Liz Claiborne and Jones New York. A lot of women mentioned Chico’s (perhaps the sole fashion retailer that has focused exclusively on the Boomer women), but they also mentioned retailers and brands (the Gap, Talbots) that serve women of all ages.
What this suggested to me was that no fashion brand or retailer is doing even some of what it could to capture the loyalty (and wallets) of Boomer women. When you consider the number of new entrants in fashion offerings for women under 50, it is shocking to see so little innovation in targeting the faster-growing, richer population of women 50+.
I’ve expressed confusion before about designers like Eileen Fisher, who is abandoning her Boomer female base in a race for younger consumers. This strategy makes even less given the large number of respondents who named Fisher as one designer who gets Vibrant Women right.
The facts are clear: Vibrant Boomer women are active fashion consumers; they have strong negative opinions and “bricks-and-mortar” shopping; and there aren’t enough designers, brands or retailers who are meeting their needs.
The fashion industry has a low-cost solution. It should launch a rapid series of online experiments, with different designers, selling techniques, and service models, to see what will capture that largest share of Vibrant Woman shoppers. A few retailers (like Zappos, Herroom and the Gilt Group are doing just that. But there’s room
— and a lot of room, given the 40 million Boomer women looking for better fashion solutions online
— to do more.
It has always been so. Women are ruled by their own lack of dress confidence and are totally prepared to give it to some guy or gal who has paid for his/her reputation as a designer. The folks in the spotlight give over to the designer – look at Hollywood. And I think many of the men designers are ‘in revenge’ against women. For instance if you look at some of the ‘costumes’ women are told to wear that makes them look like they are going to a masquerade. All that is missing is the mask!. Women designers seem to more grounded. No pun there!
We are all bamboozled into believing the fashion world knows best!! Glossy magazines, videos, newspapers, media tell us so. They are bamboozled by the hype and money and will design anything they can get away with.
Of course fashion repeats itself — and for one I sit and wait and use and re-use my wardrobe til fasion gets back to dressing the real woman.