Analysis Report - Abercrombie & Fitch

Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F), an American retailer that concentrates on upscale casual wear for young consumers, which was founded in Manhattan, New York City in June 4, 1892 by two young minds of David T. Abercrombie and Ezra Fitch. Beginning with a rough journey of selling sporting outfits and excursion goods such as fishing and hunting equipment, A&F had to file bankruptcy in 1977. Soon thereafter, the company was revived after Jake Oshman, owner of Oshman Sporting Goods, bought A&F in 1978. A&F was relaunched as a mail-retailer company specializing in hunting wear and novelty items, but was bought by The Limited ten years after its revival. The gradual shift to focusing on apparels for young consumers began when A&F was a subsidiary of Limited Brands, and since then, A&F has grown to become one of the largest apparel firms in the United States. In 1998, A&F launched Abercrombie Kids, targeting consumers from age 7-14, which further increases its revenue. In 1999 to early 2000s, A&F’s sales skyrocketed as it hit its zenith, by portraying A&F clothing as the “coolest thing” through billboard-winning song that compliments A&F in the lyrics, as well as other advertisements. Furthermore, A&F launched a subsidiary called Hollister to tackle similar age group of target audience but with lower income. This expansion to dominate the market of teenagers through consideration of other demographic factor, namely income, was exceptional for A&F’s revenue. Presently, A&F focused on

Of the hundreds of named brand clothing that form part of the retail and fashion industry I chose to compare, for my analysis, Abercrombie & Fitch, Forever 21, American Eagle, and H&M. These stores are prominent, well-known for selling apparel, shoes, and accessories by the means of offering sales and promotions to their customers. This is a clever strategy for attracting customers, allowing them to believe that they bought goods at affordable, convenient prices – and not to mention the prestigious name prescribed to the clothing brands. Using keyhole.co as my main source, I obtained relevant and valuable information regarding the status of these brands. My intentions were to compare a period of 14 days, however, due to the limited access that I received from my free trial, the program only allowed me to see fewer of the dates than I anticipated. I want to take this opportunity and mention ahead of time that due to the various and distinctive products that are sold from these stores, when looking for the “spending capacity” I decided to focus on shirts/ jeans for men and women and compare the prices among them since each of these retailers carry those items and as a way to make this report easier to contrast and comprehend. Also, when approaching the section of “setting”, I screen-shotted some of the images on Instagram and made them into a collage to separate the type of clothes and trends that each of these brands sell currently. In the following modules

Abercrombie and Fitch has become a household name and you can find one of their three division stores in your local mall and or shopping center. The stores under Abercrombie and Fitch are Hollister and Gilly Hicks Brand. I have conducted an analysis that illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of Abercrombie and Fitch. This company strives off of their strengths, which included customers having great accessibility each of their divisions. They have a higher profit after they were able to close some of their stores to focus on their stores that high profitability and revamping those. Abercrombie and Fitch were able to get high brand names such as Ralph Lauren to help bring a fresh new style into the store that in turn doubled the net income

Founded in 1977, American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO) is a retailer that designs and develops fashionable girls’ and boys’ apparel and accessories. The company’s target audience is boys and girls between the ages of 15 and 25 years old. The target audience seeks trendy and fashionable apparel product that meets a high standard of quality at an affordable price point. As of the most recent fiscal year, ended January 30, 2010, American Eagle held 1,103 retail stores in total, operating under the “American Eagle”, “Aerie”, and “Martin+Osa” brand names respectively. In addition to the retail stores,

EEOC vs Abercrombie and Fitch, a case where a practicing Muslim Samantha Elauf, sued the clothing store from discrimination. Although she passed her interview with the store, she was not hired due to head wear that she was wearing. Elauf wears as a part of her observation of her religious practice. Abercrombie policy prohibits head wear and the maintain more of a West Coast California image. Elauf’s claim was disparate treatment from Abercrombie. She was granted $20,000 in the District Court but the 10th Circuit Court reversed that decision. The Supreme Court the appealed and ruled in an 8-1 favor of EEOC. The majority stated that Abercrombie violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, whether they had knowledge or not of her religion, they were still held liable. They concluded that an applicant need not to prove the reason for accommodation based on religious reasons. Justice believed that Abercrombie was aware of Elauf’s religion and illustrated discrimination by failure to accommodate her.

The research draws attention to the fact that in 2009, the US stores generated 81.2% of Abercrombie and Fitch’s net sales. The shares of international stores and direct-to-consumer net sales were very small in comparison. Over the next two years the US stores decreased net sales percentages while net sales increased. Further investigation reveal

Currently, Abercrombie and Fitch sells jeans, graphic t shirts, shorts, knit and woven shirts, outerwear etc under the brand names of Abercrombie and Fitch, Abercrombie kids and Hollister. The main competitors of the brand include ‘Aeropostale’, ‘American Eagle outfitters 77 kids ‘and The Gap Inc. According to a survey by the ‘Teenage Research Unlimited’, Abercrombie and Fitch was regarded as the 6th coolest brand by the American kids (Perman/Reynoldsburg, 2000).

Despite Abercrombie & Fitch’s efforts to win back loyal consumers with their new rebranding initiative, the company continues to experience a decline in annual revenue and dismal growth coupled with a poor return on investment, making it a risky investment option for potential shareholders. According to the company’s annual report, Abercrombie & Fitch saw a decline in revenue from $4,116.90 billion in February 2014 to $3,744.03 billion in 2015 with fourth-quarter revenues falling nearly 14% to $1.12 billion (Abercrombie & Fitch 41). The company contributed its dismal report to a decrease in the number of operational stores at the end of Q4 fiscal 2014, weak consumer demand for both Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch, slowing growth in

American Eagle Outfitters Inc. (AEO) is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA. The company targets males and females in the distinct fifteen to twenty-five age groups - tweens, teenagers, and young college adults - in order to sell their assorted line of affordable and trendy clothing products such as sweatshirts, t-shirts, and jeans. American Eagle Outfitters’ primary businesses operate under the brands – American Eagle Outfitters, Aerie by American Eagle Outfitters, AEO Direct, and a third-party retailer. The international company operates 944 American Eagle Outfitters stores and 122 Aerie by American Eagle Outfitters stores in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Hong Kong, and China. Additionally, the AEO Direct delivers to 81 countries worldwide and the third-party retailer operates 66 stores in 12 countries under the American Eagle Outfitters brand. American Eagle is a global retailer with an excellent reputation built upon the priority of “delivering value, variety, and versatility to [their] customers” with “differentiated fashion in key categories” by continuing to “innovate [their] store experience to be more impactful” (SEC 10K).

While the company may be seeing the start to its decline, past years are proof that Abercrombie and Fitch have made a good name for themselves. How does the industry operate one might ask? There are many sides to the coin when it comes to determining how this company functions, but let’s start with its

J.Crew as an iconic brand targeting young working professional by focusing on preppy and classy look failed in identifying brand focus. Also, their business model is performing poorly in the fast-fashion industry compare to traditional competitors, with its high prices, diverging quality, and undesirable brand image. Hence, the brand perception by customers has changed and many of them prefer to purchase the discounted products rather than full-priced items.

The accounting standards used by Abercrombi and Fitch are 'International Financial Reporting Standards' (IFRS), while Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) AB uses 'Generally Accepted Accounting Principles' (GAAP).

According to Keyton, organizational culture is "the set of artifacts, values, and assumptions that emerges from the interactions of organizational members" (Keyton, 2014, p. 550). Over the past few years, past and potential employees of the clothing brand Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) have taken to the media to explain the negative organizational culture that exists within the company. The management values and company policies that create this “image-obsessed culture” have led to multiple human rights lawsuits, which has damaged the reputation of Abercrombie & Fitch globally (Benson, 2013).

Abercrombie and Fitch are an American retailer founded 1898 by David T. Abercrombie and high profile lawyer Ezra Fitch as a small waterfront shop on South Street in Manhattan called Abercrombie Co. The company focuses on designing casual wear for young consumers. A&F was famed for its wide variety of expensive and often exotic sporting equipment and attire, ranging from tennis shoes to elephant guns. This report aims to help Abercrombie and Fitch find the best method to gain success in the European market.

Over the last 10 years’ gym memberships within the United States have increased from 41.3 million to 54.1 million. The biggest trend over the last few years is becoming fit, more and more each day people are finding ways to live fit and healthier lifestyles. From eating the right nutritional foods, working out and people just wanting to follow the latest and greatest trends. The increase in gym memberships and the amount of people working out leads to the increase in athletic attire. For this exact reason athleisure wear was born, it is the newest fashion trends were people wear athletic clothing regardless if they intend not to go to the gym that day. People are wearing it to the office, shopping, to run errands and other social events. Athleisure wear consist of articles of clothing such as spandex, leggings, yoga pants, sports bras and fashionable sweats. Over the last 10 years an increase in athleisure wear has spread at a rapid rate globally, particularly in the women’s fashion industry. Since 2013 the increase in athleisure wear apparel has grown by 14% and accounts for 18% of the total clothing retail market. With this trend still catching on, active wear is expected to continue to grow at an average rate of 3.3% annually. Due to this rapid increase in purchasing athleisure wear the apparel industry will continue to grow especially Nike because they are the market leaders in active sportswear. For that exact reason I believe that Nike is a company that is worth