Fashion Brand Missguided’s Pivot
Source: Dalziel & Pow
On August 19th, Missguided, a British fashion retailer announced its re-entry to brick-and-mortar through a partnership with ASDA, George — a model that’s common amongst fashion companies looking to test the commerce experience before plunging into a fully-fledged store. A means to avoid committing to company overheads that are often difficult to keep up with.
Source: Dalziel & Pow
However, in this case, this is not Missguided’s first retail experience. In 2017, Missguided stood firm and bright opposite Apple in the London, Stratford Westfield shopping mall, making its storefront and installations easy to view from passers-by and therefore hard to miss, avoid or not post online. Retail designers Dalziel & Pow did this intentionally, “we created a uniquely Instagrammable, playful and unexpected store experience that’s always different and never boring. Breaking the rules of conventional high street retail, the space immerses shoppers in the spirit of the Missguided brand – fearless, fun and self-expressive.”, a smart takeaway for brands looking to invest in brick and mortar down the line.
Source: PropStudios
Unfortunately, in 2019, Missguided announced it was closing its store for good. That although it had experienced a rising in revenue, it also reported a loss after tax of £46.7 million, (Fashion United, 2019). If you’re familiar with the retail business, you’ll quickly realise that that’s a cause for concern, and so Missguided disappeared as quickly as it came without news on it returning for good.
As soon as we heard the news that Misguided has joined forces with ASDA, we couldn’t help but be reminded of Fenty Beauty’s launch in Boots, UK. Although Fenty from its inception launched in Harvey Nicholas’ stores, a luxury wholesaler, their partnership with Boots stores and Boots.com, which took some time to unfold, but once launched, helped to make their products more accessible.
Every town member in the UK can access a Boots store, so this very convenient pivot was a smart and strategic move from Team Fenty, considering their target audience is women aged 16-35 who are familiar with the brand name and in-store checkouts.
Like Fenty, Missguided’s core target audience are Gen Z and Millennials, the leaders of the digital era, whose style is a juxtaposition of Topshop and American Apparel. Having their favourite online brand be at a driving distance from their home (in the UK there’s an ASDA every 5-10km) is a bold yet smart move to maintain a relationship with its shoppers.
Source: Missguided
Although Missguided’s journey has just begun, it’s important that we showcase every phase and facet of running a business and how your brand is one-to-two bold, perhaps risk-taking partnerships away from a fully-fledged recovery.
Although the ASDA integration pulls the brand away from ownership of their own retail experience, translating the brand's playful personality onto design, from social media content to the in-store pop up will help the maintain the brand’s identity and top of mind awareness.