Retailers are struggling to find the right formula for the demanding baby ... - Financial Times

Retailers are struggling to find the right formula for the demanding baby-boomer market

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A neglected demographic: left to right, New York Style icon Iris Apfel; model and actress Marisa Berenson; model and actress Lauren Hutton; fashion designer Jenny Kee; actress Meryl Streep

Alison Wells, a professional singer and teacher from east London, says clothes shopping – once a delight for her – has become a chore.

A trim 5ft 8in, and a size 10, Ms Wells ought to be a model fashion customer. But she is not. At 57, the task of finding clothing that is both fashionable and age-appropriate is frustrating.

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“You are not wanting to look like mutton dressed as lamb,” she says, using a popular cliché that describes attempts to hide one’s age. But there is also “not wanting to look like your mother” in shades of beige.

“I have a dread of beige because I look like a bowl of porridge, and I never wear it,” she says.

Ms Wells is not alone. After decades of successfully catering to baby-boomer women, many clothing retailers are struggling to find the right look for them – classic enough to be age-appropriate but not too granny-ish. Some have turned their back on older women altogether, chasing web-savvy teens and twenty-somethings instead.

“Older shoppers have the disposable income but they are not necessarily spending it on clothes, because many retailers are not targeting them successfully,” says Maureen Hinton, director of research and analysis at Verdict, the retail consultancy. “Most store groups are chasing younger shoppers, who are more driven by fashion and so are much easier to understand.”

Some retailers have tried to reach older women and failed. Others have made a deliberate decision to concentrate on the youth market. But whatever the reason, they are failing to tap into a potentially lucrative market. More than ever before, wealth is concentrated in older households in industrial economies. In the US, more than a third of those aged 55 to 59 have incomes of more than $75,000. In the UK, those over 50 earn about a third more than twenty-somethings. A decade ago, that earnings power was reversed. Today, the young are increasingly burdened with debt.

The problem is that few clothing retailers have successfully managed to market to the baby-boomer women – ironic, given that advertising has for decades been geared to selling the postwar generation everything from blue jeans to Pepsi.

“Older shoppers have the disposable income but they are not necessarily spending it on clothes, because many retailers are not targeting them successfully. There is a huge opportunity for retailers to tap into the older generation but many underestimate its potential,” Ms Hinton says. “The baby boomers want style, relevant fashion and service.”

Today’s older shoppers are not like those of earlier generations, who were perhaps more willing to slip quietly into old age. The baby boomers upended notions of fashion and embraced consumerism, changing their wardrobes through the swinging 1960s, the hippy chic 1970s and the power-dressing 1980s.

Some retailers are finding success catering to this demographic. A pioneer is N Brown, the online and catalogue retailer that operates in the UK, US and Germany. Their success lies in the ability to recognise the differences between selling to twenty-somethings and to women in their 50s and 60s.

A particular fashion problem concerns designs for the upper arms of sleeves. As flesh loosens and sags with age – the result is sometimes known as “bingo wings” – special care must be taken in sleeve design. N Brown makes the bicep area wider to ensure there is enough fabric to accommodate more generous proportions. Doing this requires special mannequins and in-house models ranging in age from 40 to their late sixties.

“We don’t fit on skinny minnies or young girls,” says Philippa Brooks, buying and merchandise manager at N Brown.

The waist area also tends to thicken as women age. The current fashion for low-cut jeans can thus result in a phenomenon known as the “muffin top”, as fat rolls over the waist. N Brown cuts a range of jeans so that they are shaped and sit on the waist. It also makes clothing with the same type of fabric found in body-shaping underwear. Panels are inserted into the top of trousers to pull in tummies or into sleeves to help give shape to the bicep.

But as the ageing process intensifies, the body starts to change again. Around 70 to 75, it begins to shrink, with the legs becoming thinner.

Dexterity also becomes an issue. This makes some fastenings, such as side zips, difficult to navigate, while hooks and eyes can be too fiddly. Front fastenings are popular, as are Velcro shoes for the very old consumer, who may have arthritic hands. One of the best sellers has been a smart trouser with a hidden elasticated waist.

Deteriorating health and mobility issues also create requirements that some retailers are beginning to address. In the UK, Specsavers, best known as an optician, is expanding its hearing aid business as demand from the elderly rises.

Japan is the most advanced market when it comes to retailers gearing products to older customers. More than one in four Japanese are aged 65 or older, making it the first country to hit the 25 per cent mark.

Aeon, Japan’s largest supermarket group and mall operator, has identified the “senior shift” as a key strategic opportunity and is now targeting what it calls the “Grand Generation”. It is offering smaller portions of food and drink in its cafés and food halls. And it has introduced products tailored to elderly needs, from wigs to anti-ageing cosmetics and underwear fashioned for the body shapes of women in their 60s.

Marketing experts say that when it comes to older shoppers, it is not just about the product. The shopping experience matters, too.

In Germany, where the median age – just over 45 – is the oldest in Europe, supermarket Edeka has introduced “generation friendly” certified stores. They feature extra-wide aisles – spacious enough for two wheelchairs to pass – non-slip floors and magnifying glasses attached to shelves.

The US has a thriving catalogue market, catering to older and bigger customers, as well as store chains, such as Chicos, that have traditionally appealed to the older fashion shopper.

But mainstream US retailing has yet to make older shoppers central to its strategy, says Alison Levy, retail strategist at consultant Kurt Salmon. This is partly because, although still affluent, the recession has taken a heavy toll on the baby boomers’ savings. Instead, many retailers are fixated on younger shoppers.

“There is a huge focus on value,” she says of mature consumers. “Their spend is more driven by what they need, versus what they love and what they want. That is what is spearheading this focus on the next generation, who [retailers] feel are more impulsive, who will buy things because they are cool.”

In March 2012 Macy’s, the US department store chain traditionally a favourite of older shoppers, set out a three-year plan to target the “millennial generation” aged between 13 and 30. It is expanding departments for younger shoppers and introducing new brands – including collections in collaboration with Teen Vogue.

And while initiatives targeting mature consumers have mushroomed over the past few years, according to Planet Retail, the consultancy, they have not got very far. This is because serving older shoppers is far from straightforward. For a start, the economics are very different to selling £2 T-shirts to teens.

“If you were comparing a size 28 garment to a size 12 garment, there is clearly more material in there,” says Paul Kendrick, marketing director at N Brown. Similarly, there is a cost associated with putting an elasticated panel into a sleeve.

“But you are also building a quality into the garment,” he says. “And the customer will be willing to pay for it.”

Verdict’s research has found that although older women shopped less often than younger age groups, they were prepared to pay more per item.

“They are not like the 16-24 age group that will buy lots of products because they want a quick turnover of fast fashion. When you get older, you want something of the relevant style that will last you a bit longer,” Ms Hinton says.

Richard Hyman, a retail consultant, says older adults are less responsive to fashion – the very function of which is to persuade people to spend on clothing they do not need.

“A woman of 60 to 65 is not going to be buying a new coat every year because the one she bought last year is perfectly fine but it has gone out of fashion. Obviously a few will, but most will not,” he says.

Staple retail concepts are also turned on their head with age.

Hair tends to grey, while skin loses its lustre. N Brown has found that black – a fashion classic – does not sell well, with mature women preferring softer tones, such as “midnight”, a deep navy.

Marketing to the elderly also requires a delicate balance. Kevin Lavery, a “mature marketing” specialist, says older models are almost never used in advertisements, even in catalogues carrying clothing aimed specifically at the older figure.

“You flick through any of these catalogues and you will never see a model over the age of 32,” he says. “We’ve tried for years to use older models and they always fail. But you’d never see a 32-year-old actually wearing that,” he says of the long tunics that cover spreading tummies.

Not Your Daughter’s Jeans, a US-based retailer, promises that with its “lift tuck technology”, shoppers will be able to buy a size smaller than normal. Yet the perfectly toned figure hugged by the skinny jeans on the company’s website is not completed with a face that would reveal the wearer’s age.

In contrast, N Brown’s House of Bath division, where the average customer is 69-70, is subtly marketing products that make life easier. Examples include an ice gripper that attaches to a walking stick, and wigs – particularly in grey – that are in demand as the hair thins and survival rates from serious illness rise.

Specsavers, known for its humorous advertisements, relies on putting a positive spin on the later years: emphasising leisure and spending time with family and friends.

“You can’t say ‘you are old, you need this’,” says Mathew Gully, director of hearing care at Specsavers. “People don’t consider themselves as old. Their age may say one thing but their mind says something else.”

The sorts of advertisements that show older people in chairlifts and beside walk-in baths “just reinforce everything that is negative about getting older”, he says.

Says a 66-year-old retired civil servant from Kent: “We are the first generation that has not slipped into grannydom, where you sat in a shawl in your armchair. Probably that is why [retailers] have not got it right.”

Japan: Catering to the ‘Grand Generation’

The brows of the two elderly men are furrowed in intense concentration as each ponders his next move in the game of draughts, as a young careworker keeps an observant watch close by.

But this is no retirement home or community centre but a shopping mall on a busy street in east Tokyo, albeit one created with the requirements and interests of older shoppers in mind.

Aeon, Japan’s largest mall operator and supermarket group, has turned over an entire floor of this centre to the over-55s, a group it refers to as the “Grand Generation”.

With wide aisles, plenty of seating and a more upmarket feel than the rest of the shopping mall, this open-plan space focuses on selling products geared at popular interests for silver-haired shoppers, such as musical instruments, pet-care goods and handicraft items.

The bookshop section, for example, has lower than average shelving and a revolving carousel of reading glasses.

The heavily staffed floor also has a teaching kitchen for cookery lessons, fitness rooms, a travel agency, a bank and an internet café with staff on hand to provide guidance in surfing the web. For indulgent grandparents there is also a kindergarten section and crèche.

And for tired older legs there is a concierge service and free shuttle bus in the neighbourhood, with almost 40 care workers on hand to help those suffering from conditions such as dementia.

Other floors are aimed at a range of ages but there are subtle nods to older consumers: smaller and single portions of porridge available in the supermarket, for example, where they can also use aluminium trolleys which are lighter and easier to handle.

Since 2011 Aeon has shifted its marketing efforts towards attracting older consumers, and is keenly studying the success of the Edogawa store to see if it can overhaul others in a similar way.

Additional reporting by Jennifer Thompson in Tokyo

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