• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, September 13, 2024

While Walmart continues to grow as a grocery and ecommerce powerhouse, apparel has long been more of a struggle for the retailer. Now, the company says the investments it’s been making in design and store brands are paying off and ready for the runway. It is taking the new collection on the road with an activation called the Walmart Style Tour.

“The past few years have been transformative for Walmart’s fashion business as we continue to cement it as a fashion destination,” says Kim Tunick, Walmart’s group director of brand experiences and partnerships. “We continue expanding our assortment with quality, on-trend items that make us more relevant to our customers.”

The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company kicked the tour off recently at New York Fashion Week, highlighting its three-year relationship with designer Brandon Maxwell. He is the creative director of Scoop and Free Assembly, two of Walmart’s private-label apparel brands.

“It’s the perfect time of year to hit the road and show customers the latest and greatest we have to offer,” Tunick tells Marketing Daily via email.

Walmart started the tour in Chicago at the Taste of Chicago Festival and will bring the roadshow to Dallas, Los Angeles and dozens of other locations. The tour focuses on urban locations, which are less likely to have a Walmart.

It’s a first for the retailer. “We’re constantly looking for new ways to deepen connections and foster brand affinity,” adds Tunick. “We want to authentically show up where they are already spending their time, doing things they love.”

Giving people a firsthand look at the clothes in real life “is helping us evolve the relationship with our customers -- forging rich, personal connections.”

Digital is a significant component of the activation, enabling the collection to be accessed via QR codes. Stylists are on hand to share tips and tricks for showing off the featured trends, including denim on denim and utility chic. Shoppers can use free color analysis to help make decisions about seasonal clothes.

And there are giveaways, like personalized lipsticks, totes and fall-inspired candles.

While Walmart has made plenty of attempts to rev its fashion engines, rival Target has long been the winner of the cheap-chic game, with multiple style-driven lines crossing the $1 billion mark in annual sales. Target has found such success with Cat & Jack, its children’s apparel line, that it has even begun selling it outside of Target through Hudson’s Bay.

Earlier this summer, Walmart also announced it was relaunching the No Boundaries line, one of its biggest with an estimated $2 billion in sales, sharpening its focus on Gen Z-friendly trends.

In its latest quarterly report, Walmart says apparel is gaining.

“This assortment mix is resonating with existing and new customers,” adds Tunick. “We are capturing customers who shopped at Walmart but haven’t shopped Walmart fashion before, and customers who haven’t ever shopped at Walmart.”

She adds that it has increased sales penetration in consumers with household incomes greater than $100,000, a demographic segment that is also increasingly shopping at Walmart for groceries.

“Marketing is focused on driving awareness for that assortment, shifting customer perception and driving conversion,” she says, “reaching people where they are shopping, in person, online and on social.”