Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Anthropologie Clothes: My First Impressions

By Smruti Evans

Urban Outfitters is a prestigious brand in retailing, but it wasn't until recently that I discovered Anthropologie. If you haven't heard, seen, or been in an Anthropologie retail location, you are missing an experience, I kid you not.

After returning from the store, I found some numbers that shocked me. Here's one that really left an impression: the average Anthropologie shopper spends 80 minutes in the store per trip. Eighty -- that's one and a third hours on just one trip. How much time do you think the typical shopper spends with other retailers? Fifteen minutes. That's an amazing figure that should describe a bit about the feel of the stores.

Anthropologie was founded to capitalize on patrons of the Urban Outfitters store who outgrew UA's fashions. As such, the target market for Anthropologie clothing is a 30 to 40'ish sophisticated 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 very selective and exclusive with their clothing lines, and just about everything you find in a store is limited edition. Heck, they even have a good number of one-of-a-kind items!

These items tend to fly off of the shelves, leaving oddball items scattered about, but that leads to an opportunity for shoppers: namely, sales racks. There are quite a few discounted items if you're not against searching, which I'm sure contributes to the long shopping visits.

What impresses me the most about Anthropologie clothes is the distinctive styling. Their clothes include a lot of flowery prints, laces, and delicate details, but look classy and sophisticated at the same time. The feeling that I get is that it's a clothing line for beautiful women who don't feel they need to reveal half of their bodies to look attractive. Home run, 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!

Here's the bottom line: if you haven't yet stepped foot in an Anthropologie store, find out if there's one in the vicinity. It really is a great shopping experience. But beware of the prices! - 16651

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