Low-rise jean-wearers, you’ve been proper all alongside. Not solely has the fashion returned from its two-decade slumber, however so, too, has certainly one of its most storied purveyors.
Abercrombie & Fitch, the clothes retailer beloved within the Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s, put an emphatic stamp on its comeback, posting its finest first quarter in firm historical past. The corporate reported $1 billion in web gross sales, a 22% leap from final yr, far exceeding expectations. Sister model Hollister noticed a 12% development in comparable gross sales, and Abercrombie’s shares had been up over 20% to $187 on Wednesday.
“We efficiently navigated seasonal transitions with related assortments and compelling advertising, leveraging agile chase capabilities and stock self-discipline, driving gross sales above our expectations,” CEO Fran Horowitz stated within the earnings report.
The corporate owes its blowout numbers to savvy clearance gross sales, a pull-back on promotions and stock, and its grasp on what’s in vogue, just like the wide-leg, low-rise jean. However its extra profound success—which propelled a 285% inventory development that exceeded even AI darling Nvidia in 2023—has been because of a seven-year transformation of Abercrombie’s manufacturers and a deep understanding of fixing post-pandemic cultures.
Earlier than Abercrombie soared to retail royalty, it first hit all-time low. In 2016, the corporate was deemed most-hated retailer by the American Buyer Satisfaction Index, as its customers outgrew the perfume-weighted air in shops and hypersexualized fashions and had been put-off by the corporate’s slew of controversies. When Horowitz took the helm in 2017, she brightened the shops and revamped their inventories, increasing sizes and specializing in dressing younger professionals for all components of their life-style—a shift that match with the post-COVID development of informal gown.›
“We grew up Abercrombie,” Horowitz stated in a 2022 Fortune interview. “We actually centered on this younger millennial, this younger, mid-twenties shopper, and we acquired the response that we had been hoping for.”
Will peeps as soon as once more chillax on the mall?
Whereas Abercrombie has soared above rivals, it additionally represents a beacon of hope for different attire retailers that had been as soon as stalwart mall manufacturers. Each American Eagle and Hole, with earnings this week, are anticipated to proceed Abercrombie’s optimistic development, albeit with out the identical magnitude.
The nice fortune is reaching the retailer’s mall-adjacent relations. Sporting attire mainstay Dick’s Sporting Items raised its full-year earnings steering after reporting Wednesday a 5.3% leap in comparable gross sales for the quarter because of extra individuals shopping for sneakers and athletic gear. Low cost shops Ross Gown for Much less and TJ Maxx posted gross sales features final week, as younger consumers trying to save cash flocked to the shops.
Neil Saunders, managing director of retail at analyst agency GlobalData, informed Fortune that these corporations, whereas they share comparable settings, have discovered success just because they perceive their very own discrete shopper bases.
“Within the case of TJ Maxx, it’s about worth for cash and offering these nice bargains and nice value factors for the manufacturers individuals wish to purchase,” he stated. “For Dick’s, it’s actually about having all the newest sporting manufacturers below one roof and taking some share for extra informal attire from shops.”
Certainly, shops have withered due to the rise of e-commerce and the proliferation of direct-to-consumer manufacturers. Macy’s is within the midst of a restructuring effort, closing 150 areas this yr to make method for its luxurious subsidiaries. Kohl’s and Nordstrom have likewise struggled to enchantment to younger individuals. Analytics agency Coresight Analysis projected that by 2026, U.S. division retailer gross sales can have plummeted 21% from $103 billion in 2018 to $81 billion.
Even with nostalgic mall manufacturers like Abercrombie making a comeback within the face of the division retailer decline, Saunders argued the rise of those mall and mall-adjacent favorites don’t imply the purchasing complexes of the ‘90s and 2000s will return with the identical fervor. In actuality, there’s only a assortment of manufacturers that occur to be the mall darlings of yesteryear which have discovered methods to remain related.
“It’s probably not a comeback of the mall per se,” Saunders stated. “It’s a comeback of some specific manufacturers which can be doing the proper factor.”
