Retail and the 30 something shopper

Brick and mortar stores have taken quite a hit in the last few years. The convenience of online shopping, next day delivery leaves little desire to go to a mall. Time is precious, people are overscheduled, and want to simplify their errands. Once Strabucks fully launches with delivery service, people may never leave their homes.

One of the biggest issues I see in retail, working there 5 days a week, is the shift in brands catering to a younger demographic, leaving many in late 30s and up to feeling left out.  Not just because their favorite lipstick they’ve used for 15 years is suddenly discontinued. The basic products they are wanting are gone, discontinued to make way for “instagrammable” trends the younger shopper is looking for. Not a thing wrong with trends, but when trends become the core aspect of a brand, a large group of consumers look for other options.

In makeup we saw a huge surge in Matte everything. Matte Foundations, Matte Lipsticks, giant matte brows. Those items are very client (and skin type) specific. One type does not fit all. Within a few years we began to see a shift in all brands. Many moving away from their core, essence, and the things that built their empires, to doing the same thing every other brand is doing. One caught fire on a product category and suddenly every brand out there must produce a comparable item. Lines began to blur, and things that were once special and unique are now a dime a dozen.

Clothing has taken an interesting turn as well. There is a brilliant meme floating around saying “there are some people that want the other half of the shirt”. It’s true. We also want shorts to be longer that back pockets. By all means, if you want your ass to hang out, be my guest. But there are many that aren’t as posterior-ally confident.

More and more cheap, trendy clothing retailers are opening. I once had a co-worker that described them as disposable clothing. The quality is not exactly the best, they are super cheap, and you really wouldn’t wear it after that season. It took me several years, but I had convinced a friend to stop buying disposable and start buying quality to save money. We’re seeing classic, core, quality that last for years, and always in style clothing dwindling. Being a soon to be 40 year old, I struggle to find clothing. I’m wanting classic fashionable, not overly trendy and not matronly. My choices are getting more and more limited. There isn’t a balance between the styles available.

One of my biggest questions to brands, and buyers is “why cut out an entire demographic of shoppers to be a flash in the pan?”  It has become quite difficult for the brands that became juggernauts on the IG trend wave to keep up that momentum and reproduce the results. Shoppers are getting wiser to the money that is behind social media posts. The veil is being lifted from their eyes, and are getting back to the pre influencer days of researching for themselves. Impulsive social media driven shopping is slowing down. Now, how do retailers capture this and get the shoppers back?