Since 1962 Walmart has been operating hypermarkets, discount department stores and grocery stores, offering merchandise at low prices. Its fashion department has been known mainly for the basics. Now, the retail giant is entering a fresh territory: higher level fashion.
Walmart wants to push past its core consumer and reach a more style-conscious one. One of their linen-blend shorts from Sofia Vergara’s clothing line is a perfect example, as it is tasteful and looks much like a style sold by Mango at three times the price.
Behind the attitude change there is a couple who are veterans of the fashion world. In 2017 the company hired former Saks Fifth Avenue employee Denise Incandela as the executive vice president of Walmart U.S apparel division. Incandela now oversees six brands with more than $1 billion in sales and is the one who has been steadily switching Walmart from basic apparel to fashion. Under her guidance, in 2021 the retailer hired designer Brandon Maxwell, Project Runway judge and stylist for Lady Gaga, currently the creative director of Walmart’s Scoop and Free Assembly brands.
At Free Assembly, Maxwell thinks of elevated essentials, from blazers to dresses and jumpsuits. At Scoop, a one-time “It” girl New York fashion boutique that Walmart has transformed into a brand, the collection is wide-ranging. Since the arrival of Denise Incandela, the retailer added more than 1,000 national brands, including Reebok and Chaps, as well as Sofia Jeans by Sofia Vergara and Love & Sports by Michelle Smith and Stacey Griffith.
But the change also seems a battle between titans. For Walmart, the need to elevate its style is to be able to compete with Amazon. Because Jeff Bezos’ giant is its biggest competitor in the general retail space, Amazon is hoping to grab a larger slice of the $7.2 trillion retail pie.
The company, which has 4,600 Walmart stores in the U.S. alone, spent decades being the biggest everything in retail only to find itself behind Amazon. As a matter of fact, Walmart is the second largest player in fashion, according to Coresight, framing Amazon at $56.4 billion last year, almost double Walmart’s take.
The main goal of the hypermarket retailer has always been to sell jeans, underwear, socks, and T-shirts, basic fashion that is no longer enough in today’s world.
