Two specialty apparel retailers, Oasis and The Limited, have added their names this year to the ever-growing stable of retail chains embarking on outbound licensing programs.
Oasis, a U.K. fashion retailer with 300 stores in the U.K. and Ireland and 79 elsewhere, retained Golden Goose as its licensing agent last month. It already has licensees for watches, eyewear, and costume jewelry and is negotiating deals in other areas such as home goods. The Limited, with more than 230 locations across the U.S., secured Beanstalk as its representative earlier in 2015. Its plans include athleisurewear, outwear, optical products, and more.
Licensing programs involving retail nameplates—most of which encompass just a few deals—tend to utilize one or more of the following tactics:
- Partnering with specialty retailers in clearly non-competitive categories. Toys ‘R’ Us licensed PetSmart for branded pet toys, while Dylan’s Candy Bar licensed Claire’s for accessories, jewelry, and tech accessories.
- Bringing a dead retail brand back to life. Sharper Image was a pioneering example, while more recently Bluestar is rejuvenating former tween retail brand Limited Too through a 100% licensing strategy.
- Authorizing products for sale in the retailer’s own stores only. Ann Taylor licensed the Camuto Group to source and oversee its in-store shoe program, sold under the Ann Taylor brand, while Interparfums secured the rights to the Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister labels for fragrances sold only in A&F and Hollister locations.
In all cases, the idea is to extend the brand and generate awareness and revenue while avoiding competitive retailers and not cannibalizing the core business.
Those goals may be more difficult for retail labels that do not follow one of the paths listed above, but rather use traditional brand-extension methods to enter categories (and retailers) where they are not already present. Sears licensed its private-label DieHard automotive battery brand to Dorcy International for rechargeable household batteries and flashlights sold through non-Sears-owned stores, for example, while Aeropostale just signed a licensee for home textiles distributed through department stores and big-box retailers.
The retail landscape is changing, of course, and consumers increasingly expect to see a brand in multiple distribution tiers; designers who sell through their own boutiques and through collaborations with stores such as H&M and Target represent just one example. Still, extending a brand from its namesake stores into other retailers—even if not directly competitive in terms of customer demographics or categories—could cut into sales in the core retail business. But that may be a risk worth taking if it elevates the brand overall.
In case you’re keeping track, other retailers who have dabbled in outbound licensing to various degrees, or have announced their intent to do so, include Fred Segal, GNC, Frederick’s of Hollywood, Eddie Bauer, Brookstone, Wild Oats, Bombay Co., and Kitson.
Comments are closed.