Monday, December 1, 2008

Anthropologie Clothing: My First Impressions

By Smruti Evans

Urban Outfitters seems to be a prestigious name in retailing, but it wasn't until just a few days ago that I learned about Anthropologie. If you haven't heard, seen, or been in an Anthropologie retail store, you are missing an experience, I kid you not.

After visiting the store, I dug up some numbers that shocked me. Here's one that really left an impression: the typical Anthropologie customer spends eighty minutes in the store per visit. Eighty -- that's one and a third hours on each visit. How much time do you think the average customer spends with other retailers? Fifteen minutes. That's an amazing number that should convey loads about the feel of the stores.

Anthropologie was formed to profit from patrons of the Urban Outfitters brand who outgrew UA's fashions. As such, the target consumer for Anthropologie clothing is a 30 to 40'ish professional woman with high discretionary income. Not a bad niche to target!

Ask ten women what they think of Anthropologie and you'll likely get . . . one opinion! Almost unanimously, people love the store, but aren't crazy about the prices. Granted, they are high, but for good reason. Anthropologie is extremely selective and exclusive with their clothing lines, and just about everything you find in a store is a limited edition run. Heck, they even have a good number of one-of-a-kind pieces!

These items tend to fly off of the shelves, leaving oddball items here and there, but that leads to an opportunity for buyers: namely, sales racks. There are quite a few sale items if you're not averse hunting, which I'm sure is responsible in part for the average length of stay.

What I like most about Anthropologie clothes is the distinctive styling. Their clothes include a lot of flowery prints, appliques, and velvets, but look elegant and sophisticated at the same time. The feeling that I get is that it's a clothing line for successful women who don't want to reveal half of their bodies to look sexy. Score, I'd say.

If you're really looking for a deal, you can find discount Anthropologie clothing online - not through the Anthropologie store, but through other retailers. I can't imagine that these items are wholesale, and with the high turnover in clothing, I don't think it's made up of last season's items either, but the price is attractive!

Bottom line: if you haven't yet shopped in an Anthropologie store, determine if there's one in the vicinity. It really is a great shopping experience. But beware of the prices! - 16650

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