From easy-to-try recipes to razor blades, it seems like just about anything these days can be boxed and sold as part of an online subscription service.
Even jeans and everyday apparel.
South Side-based retailer American Eagle recently launched Style Drop, a subscription service that allows shoppers to select three items online that will be shipped to them for a monthly fee of $49.95. After a month, return the items and pick three more, or keep the ones you’ve got for as long as you want (although you’ll still be charged $49.95 per month). Subscribers also have the option of purchasing and keeping the clothes.
“Gen Z [or those born between mid 1990s to mid 2000s] is increasingly interested in options that allow them to look great but have less of an impact on the environment,” said Kyle Andrew, American Eagle’s chief marketing officer. “Style Drop allows them to test out different trends we offer and make it their own.”
For now, Style Drop is in the pilot phase and offers only women’s apparel. Subscribers can choose from tops, jeans, dresses and non-denim bottoms, all posted online at www.aestyledrop.com.
American Eagle’s foray into online subscription services follows in the footsteps of other chain apparel retailers that have already entered the space. Last fall, for instance, men’s and women’s retailer Express introduced The Express Style Trial. It offers a box of three items that the subscriber picks for a flat monthly fee of $70, along with free shipping and laundry. Ann Taylor’s version is called Infinite Style and follows a similar model for $95 per month.
As traditional brick-and-mortar retail has had its struggles (particularly for mall stores), the subscription e-commerce market has been on the rise. In fact, it’s grown by more than 100 percent each year over the past five years, reports McKinsey & Co., a consulting firm that conducts market research. In a survey released in early 2018 of more than 5,000 U.S. consumers, it found that 15 percent of online shoppers had subscribed to an e-commerce subscription service in the past year. Sixty percent of these subscribers are women, the survey found.
The online styling service Stitch Fix — which ships a curated box of clothing and customers keep only the pieces they like — is a leader in this market. For the quarter ending Oct. 27, 2018, its sales had climbed nearly 24 percent to $366.2 million, compared to $295.6 million during the same period in 2017. Meanwhile, Rent the Runway, which turns 10 years old this year, can be credited as one of the pioneers of the online-clothing-rental-meets-subscription-service space. It’s become a digital destination to find something by a high-end designer to wear to a special occasion for an affordable price.
But is wearing a ballgown for a night and returning it different from donning blue jeans for weeks before sending them back? Ms. Andrew assures that all worn items returned to American Eagle via Style Drop go through a “thorough cleaning” and three rounds of inspections. Plus, packages are hand packed to help ensure clothing is in good condition before it goes out to subscribers.
She acknowledges that American Eagle is still learning about what kinds of pieces people most want to try through a subscription service like this. The intent is for shoppers to be able to experiment with a range of styles without having to commit to them.
“Jeans are our core product, and we feature a great range of fits and styles in this category,” she said. “As the test continues and we learn more about what our customer is looking to rent from us, we’ll adjust the assortment accordingly.”
So far, American Eagle has had “great interest and engagement” with Style Drop.
“Our goal with AE Style Drop was to attract new customers to our brand and excite current customers to try out different trends,” Ms. Andrew said.
Sara Bauknecht: sbauknecht@post-gazette.com or on Twitter and Instagram @SaraB_PG.
First Published: April 8, 2019, 12:00 p.m.
