Buying Handbags Consumer Attitudes in UK

Fashion Accessories Retailing - UK -

The Consumer – Attitudes towards Buying Handbags

The last question asked by Mintel and GMI, regarding attitudes towards buying handbags, was directed to all women in the nationally representative sample:

“Thinking specifically about buying handbags, which of these, if any, do you agree with?”

Key points

●              Fashion is the key driving force in women buying handbags – nearly three-quarters of the Fashionista (love fashion) and Qualitista (love quality) consumer typologies say that handbags are an important accessory. More than half buy different ones for day and evening.

●              Value, rather than just a cheap price, is what consumers are looking for in these cash-constrained times. Therefore, enticing visual merchandising and signage are crucial, as are ‘how to wear’ visual clues that highlight an item’s versatility (especially scarves).

●              Four in ten women think that handbags are an important accessory, which is perhaps lower than one might have thought, given their massive popularity and the ‘It bag’ phenomenon over recent years.

●              Having a ‘wardrobe’ of handbags is important for a third of women, showing the opportunity and importance for retailers to have a wide selection, and to display them appropriately to capitalise on women looking for a specific occasion bag.

●              The feelgood and quality motivations outweigh price: this shows that the whole shopping experience – from visual merchandising to staff service on the floor and at the till – is important to embed a whole positive experience for women buying bags. This will engender loyalty.

●              Important to build an all-round feelgood factor: As the recession bites, many retailers are cutting staff levels and we believe this could be a false economy as shoppers will find it harder to get that feelgood factor (apart from owning the product) which is what they really want when they do decide to buy something – especially if it is to cheer themselves up.

FIGURE 19: Attitudes towards buying handbags, June 2009

A wardrobe of bags

●              Around half of the over-55s women are likely to think a bag is an important accessory, but only a third of them bought one in the past year. These women are an opportunity because they do not go for the cheapest bags. Retailers have an opportunity here to grow sales by encouraging these shoppers to buy different bags for day and evening. There is scope to communicate the quality of the bags to the women, and to emphasise the feelgood factor of buying and owning a new handbag.

●              Many 35-44s women clearly have other more pressing priorities than handbags. They are least likely to go for quality (14%) or to have different ones for day and evening; they are most likely to go for the cheapest (22%). This group is an opportunity for competitively priced mainstream retailers, such as M&S with ‘outstanding value’, and also the value stores.

●              There is an opportunity to engender more of a feelgood factor, especially among women over-45, across all demographics, with handbags at competitive prices. Retailers could consider adding value with promotions such as offering a half-price purse with a bag, or with benefit-led products, such as those with comfortable padded shoulder straps or ‘organiser’ bags that provide lifestyle solutions, or perhaps a bag that comes with an umbrella.

●              M&S has an opportunity as half of its grocery shoppers think handbags are important accessories. Displaying handbags clearly in occasion groups (ie casual day, formal evening, glamorous evening etc) and signage highlighting quality aspects may appeal to these shoppers.

Key analysis: Displaying handbags and scarves together could encourage multi-purchases. Scarves can be tied to handbags as decoration (seen at Topshop and River Island) and also displayed on mannequins. They need to be shown in occasion themes to ease purchase decisions.

Special occasion handbags could have co-ordinating gloves alongside (ie for weddings).

There is an opportunity for matching handbags and belts – using the same leather/colour, and displaying them together in day/evening occasion themes.

Tie buying polarisation

●              When comparing women’s attitudes to buying with what other accessories they buy, the findings support the opportunities highlighted earlier. However, also of note is that women who think quality rules (21%) and women who go for the cheapest (18%) are both relatively likely to buy ties. As they will primarily be buying gifts (for men) then clear price/quality product architecture needs to be shown in ties displays.

●              Signage highlighting benefits of the various ties (ie stain resistant and machine washable silk) will appeal to the quality lovers, and multi-packs and promotional offers will appeal to the latter. Highlighting real added value attributes in the product could help convert more shoppers to more quality purchasing.

Key analysis: Marks & Spencer is strong on quality but low on the feelgood factor. Could it do more to make the overall shopping experience more enjoyable? There could be scope to make the handbag displays look more ‘special’ – especially with the premium Autograph and Limited lines – to give them more emotional value to shoppers. Special gift wrapping at the till point could also be considered.

Primark could attract higher transaction values from quality-orientated women with better quality items (ie more leather) that are still well priced.

New Look and supermarkets could extend their quality/price architecture in their ranges of day and evening bags, to attract a broader demographic of women looking for quality and value.

Next – less than a quarter of its women shoppers think handbags are an important accessory. The retailer could put more importance on the display of accessories – both in the window and in-store visual merchandising, as well as in its advertising campaigns – to show their role in updating fashion style. Next could also reference its archive (as retailers like Jaeger have done for its 125th anniversary this year) to revive bestsellers in a contemporary setting.

Claire’s shoppers are strongly likely to think handbags are a feelgood purchase (38%). Claire’s – for all its limitations – is a fun place to shop and clearly customers enjoy the experience whether buying for themselves or for gifts.

Debenhams has a broad architecture in accessories, from competitively priced own-label to the more aspirational Designers and brands. But, it could be missing a trick on its value offer. Very low percentages of ‘the cheaper the better’ women (9%) buy accessories there. While it must maintain the value of its aspirational ranges, perhaps stronger promotion of its Debenhams/Collection accessories could increase its appeal to C2DEs on a budget.

Adding value and emotion

●              Supermarkets need to add more value – in design, fashionability and quality – to their accessories to attract more women who think handbags are an important accessory and who are interested in different styles for day and evening.

●              M&Sneeds to look at how it can create more of a feelgood emotion among its accessory shoppers, especially as Nextis much stronger here.

Key analysis: Choice and quality are important to online shoppers. This channel is a good opportunity for retailers to test out new ranges, limited and premium lines which they may not want to put in all stores.

Dorothy Perkins’recent initiative to introduce branded accessories in-store should appeal to the ‘quality rules’ shoppers … more needs to be done to promote these ranges in the window as it is only in store that one discovers them. The H&M tie up with Jimmy Choo should also appeal to the ‘quality rules’ shopper, but perhaps more to the Fashionistas.

Debenhams could usefully showcase its ranges of day and evening bags more clearly, to attract those women looking for different styles for different occasions. It could also look to create more integrated displays with other fashion accessories to create stories and encourage multi-purchases (like it does in its Holiday Shop department).

Also Read Dissertations on Consumer Attitudes towards Budget Hotels in UK.  Contact Expert Research Writers at Mahasagar Publications, Mumbai, India.