While on a cruise ship the last two weeks, I was lucky to have 9 days totally at sea to rest, relax, read, meander, daydream, snuggle with my new husband and, of course, SHOP. Yes, there were tons of tropical treasures to buy, and as you probably guessed, souvenir T-shirts to bring those destination memories home. Because I work at an apparel company, gift shops are magnets to me, to see which styles they’re carrying, brands they choose, the imprints on the garments, and how they are marketing and pricing their shirts.
Sure enough, right before we arrived at the first port, a bustling T-shirt display was assembled for these captive shoppers with vacation money to burn. Why not take a look myself? The tees were sorted by size: first table for smalls and mediums, then larges, XLs, and finally 2 and 3XLs. I glanced at the labels first: YES! A brand we carried! Then the colors: ordinary shades, a few tropical, but mostly basics. Next, the styles: basic generic “adult” tees, no ladies’ styles, all cotton, same neckline. And the imprints? Front chest billboards. Dull, drab and what you might expect from every beach resort shop in the country. Nothing innovative, standout, eye-catching or dramatic.
Perhaps it was just ME—jaded from all the T-shirts I see every day. But NO! I watched the other shoppers for their reactions. Although this cruise wasn’t for what I call “hip fashionistas under 40″—mostly retirees who could take off more than two weeks—these ladies were looking for STYLE. Even when their purchases were for OTHERS—usually those YOUNGER than them—they wanted something different, unique, fashionable. When for a woman, they desired something that would fit and flatter the wearer, not their husband’s longer, boxier tee.
They scanned the imprints for something WOW. Pretty. Vibrant. Creative. Most passed by the T-shirts. After all, there were many other shops in the upcoming ports that would have what they were looking for.
Then I wondered: Perhaps, I was premature in making judgments. So I waited until AFTER we visited the ports, on the last few sea days, to see if behavior changed. Not one bit. The piles of T-shirts remained high. Very few made it home, when I visited.
And so, here was a lesson for me, and for every apparel counselor today. Even older clients who grew up with the “one-size-fits-all” adult T-shirt as their world were choosing to buy FASHION TEES. They want fashion colors. They want unique styling. If it’s for a woman, they want a ladies’ fit. Softer fabrics. They want well-designed, eye-catching logo designs. These are exactly the same factors that help us grow a BASICS sale into a fashion-forward, better-profit maker when you show your expertise in counseling those clients toward fashion tees.
Good luck with upselling fashion in all your T-shirt programs this season. (Start with calling on the cruise lines!)
Cordially,
Mary Ellen Sokalski, MAS
(Formerly Mary Ellen Nichols, now married!)
