Teen clothing: Spring Roundup

Ted MarzilliCEO YouGov Direct
April 17, 2014, 10:08 PM GMT+0

Teen retailers are far behind their general competitors in both parents’ value perception and purchase consideration.

Of that struggling teen group, Forever 21 scores the highest on the two measures, followed by Aeropostale and American Eagle. But all three still come up far short of where more broad-based retail chains such as Walmart, Old Navy, Target, Kohl’s, and J.C. Penney score with parents.

Given that purchase consideration is an indicator of potential sales, there may still be encouraging news to potential buyers for Aeropostale, which is heavily rumored to be on the block. The brand has seen its stock decline 37% since March 13th, when announced that they had agreed to a financing package from Sycamore Partners, but no deal has been signed yet.

So called “fast fashion retailers” such as H&M and Forever 21 -- which can stock new items in as little as three weeks -- score better in value with parents. But H&M (11%) scores lower on purchase consideration than American Eagle (18%) or Aeropostale (16%), among parents, and is even farther behind Forever 21 (21%).

By comparison, Walmart has a 65% purchase consideration score, with Target coming in at 43%.
The biggest current outlier in the retail field is Abercrombie + Fitch, which has the lowest value perception and purchase consideration scores combined as deemed by parents. Their purchase consideration score is 7%, and on the Value score range of -100 to 100, with zero being equal positive and negative feedback, they reside at -16.

YouGov BrandIndex measured more than 30 of the most popular retail chains as perceived by adults with children under the age of 18. Each retailer was charted by combining two of YouGov BrandIndex’s most relevant scores: Purchase Consideration ("When you are in the market next to purchase, from which of the following brands would you consider purchasing?”) and Value (“"Does it give good value for what you pay?").

Teen Clothing: Parents

Mass Clothing: Parents