At Surf Expo, Quiksilver Women’s VP of Sales Steve Ellingson gave me an update on how the Quiksilver brand’s female efforts are going.
I made sure to stop at the booth because I have heard from several retailers that Quiksilver Girls, while still small, is showing good growth at retail.
Quiksilver Girls is heading into its third year, and QSW, formerly Quiksilver Women, is heading into its fifth year. In 2011, CEO Bob McKnight said during an earnings conference call that the company believes Quiksilver Girls and Quiksilver Women’s could grow into a $100 million business over the next five years.
In the past, Quiksilver has described the positioning of its female lines this way: Roxy is for high school girls, Quiksilver for college girls and QSW for young women who are out of college.
Three Quiksilver Girls styles for Spring 2013.I wanted to confirm the buzz I’ve been hearing about Quiksilver Girls, so asked Cary Allington of ActionWatch for some insight into the brand’s performance.
ActionWatch tracks Quiksilver Girls and Quiksilver Women together.
Cary said, “Quiksilver is a top-10 female apparel brand in the ActionWatch retail panel. During the Jan-Aug 2012 time period, Quiksilver had the highest percentage revenue growth of any of the top female apparel brands compared to the same time period last year.”
“Interestingly, Quiksilver had the second-highest market share growth in female apparel after Roxy, suggesting that there may be very little, if any, cannibalization taking place. Quiksilver also had the highest distribution penetration increase of the top-10 female apparel brands, although the penetration growth slowed considerably after the first quarter this year,” Cary said.
At Surf Expo, I asked Steve about what they have learned so far with Quiksilver Girls, where QSW is seeing growth, what are the strongest classifications, and more.
Any interesting learnings so far with Quiksilver Girls?
Steve Ellingson: Obviously, there is an evolution that takes place when you launch something, and then have two years of business to learn from. During that time period, you find things that work and things that don’t.
We’ve become more knowledgeable from a classification standpoint as to what our customer responds to, and that understanding has allowed us to create more marketable product that is retailing better.
We really got a lot of traction for spring and summer this year as far as sell through at retail and that was a result of things we learned the prior two years. We are hitting our stride.
And what are the strongest classifications?
It depends on the season. In spring, dresses have been really strong, and while we found that T-shirts did not work, knits have done well and are expanding.
Shorts work really nicely for us, and tops and blouses – we’ve really seen an increase there, and in wovens as well.
That success started in fall and has moved into spring. One of our best booking pieces to date is a chambray denim shirt.
See Page 2 for the strategy behind the pricing of both lines, more
How have shoppers responded to the pricing of Quiksilver Girls?
When we launched, we were 15% to 20% higher than Roxy. With the rise of fast fashion, that was a challenge at first, but we see that changing somewhat. There is an intrinsic value that the consumer that is shopping this brand relates to now.
If the product is right, there is not as much of a price issue as there might have been before.
A QSW maxi dress
That girl sees the benefit to the fabrics, she sees the benefit to the style, and the price point justifies what she is responding to.
Is John Moore’s studio still handling the design?
Yes, he is still designing Quiksilver Girls and QSW.
How is business going for QSW?
With QSW, what we are finding is that we have a natural adjacency that we didn’t have before. If you look at some of distribution channels that we come from, QSW next to a Roxy, or Billabong, or Volcom really stood out. Now, because of Quiksilver Girls, there is a natural progression.
How we think of it, is QSW is aspirational and at the top of the pyramid, and Quiksilver Girls has a broader appeal that is a little more price sensitive.
The styling and the aesthetic look similar to me.
Yes, we describe them both as modern coastal classic and there is a natural progression. Here’s an example. Here is a QSW long, halter maxi dress that is all silk, at $108 retail. Here is a Quiksilver Girls long maxi but with a synthetic fabric at $78.
The shopper can touch and feel the difference and can fall in love with the one of the dresses which is priced correctly for what she sees and feels.
In addition to surf shops, QSW was targeting the boutique business if I remember correctly. How are sales in that channel?
We are seeing growth in boutiques. We were at Project with QSW and it was amazing. Typically we see 70 customers over the three-day show, and this time, we saw 70 in the first day.
We also noticed at Project, and here at Surf Expo, that our retail customers are coming not only from the coasts, but also from the middle part of the country.
See our slide show, above, for more photos of Quiksilver Girls and QSW’s spring lines.
