In an effort to boost its appeal to Latina fashionistas, Macy’s says it has signed a multi-year agreement with Thalía for an exclusive women’s fashion brand. The new brand, called Thalía Sodi, is scheduled to launch in 300 Macy’s stores and on macys.com in Spring 2015. The line is expected to include dresses, tops, pants, shoes and jewelry.
Earlier this year, Macy’s also partnered with the megastar, naming her (along with the animated Dora the Explorer) as an Icon of Style for 2013, and she appeared at Macy’s events around the country, linked to its Hispanic Heritage month celebrations.
The clothing will be produced by Macy’s, “based on Thalía’s viewpoint and lifestyle. She will provide robust marketing support, including serving as the brand’s model, spokeswoman and advocate”, it says in the release.
While the fast-growing Hispanic market appeals to many brands, the battle for fashion-hungry Latinas clothing budget is especially fierce, and Macy’s is already out in front.
Last year, Latina Insights, a division of LVM, polled 1,900 subscribers to its Latina magazine, and Macy’s and Target scored highest as women’s first choice for fashion, at 18%. Kohl’s had 13%, Walmart 12%, and JCPenney 10%.
But retailers have all been stepping up their offerings in a bid to appeal to them, including the Sofía by Sofía Vergara collection at Kmart and Kohl’s lines from Jennifer Lopez and Narciso Rodriguez.
And research from WSL Strategic Retail has identified Hispanic women as some of the most passionate shoppers, searching for deals across all retail channels. In its most recent survey, the market research company found that Latina are more actively using smartphones; coupons; online searches, dollar stores and deep-discount retailers. It found that 60% of Hispanic women use apps to find lowest prices, for example, and 53% use phones in store to find electronic coupons. In addition, 75% are using traditional coupons, while 63% say they don’t mind traveling further to find a better deal.
Brand-new data from Experian Marketing Services, reports that Hispanic adults are more frequently visitors to store websites than the average online population, with Hispanics’ market share of visits some 21% higher than the average than the online population. They also shop more frequently from their smartphones, with Macy’s.com the most popular.