Holt Renfrew Men, Bloor St. Toronto
After much anticipation, Holt Renfrew opened their first stand-alone men’s store a couple of weeks ago on coveted Bloor St. in Toronto. Only a block away from their flagship, the men’s-only store is a brave new venture targeting male shoppers with an approach directly suited to men.
Why now?
There is change afoot. Retailers have discovered that while the women’s fashion market is nearing saturation, the men’s fashion market has not realized its full potential. Always ahead of the curve, luxury brands including Hermes, Coach and Ralph Lauren have been opening stand-alone men’s stores in major cities, for the better part of a decade. Even accessible brands such, as J Crew and Banana Republic have occasionally divided their men’s and women’s collections into separate retail spaces. And coming soon: Lululemon will be opening their first stand-alone men’s store in New York. Then there are the retailers who entirely forgo the women’s market and focus exclusively on male shoppers such as Harry Rosen.
Harry Rosen, Bloor St. Toronto
Not only is there an unrealized opportunity for retailers, but men are simply ready to shop – or at least finding that they need to shop now. Not only has there been a cultural shift, with men shopping for themselves rather than relying on the busy women in their lives to shop for them. There has also been a major shift in the preferred fashion silhouette for men, from relaxed fits to skinny cuts; the kind of significant shift that comes infrequently in the world of men’s fashion and forces men to update their wardrobe. And men of younger generations, particularly Generation Y, are more fashion savvy than ever and more comfortable with shopping than their predecessors – all of which has fueled sales of men’s fashion, even through the past economic downturn, and spurred interest in the male shopper.
But why stand-alone stores for men? The fact is that men and women shop differently, period. In the 1990’s pioneering research by Paco Underhill, using customer observation and tracking, began to expose the significant differences between male and female shoppers. More recently neuroscientists, such as Dr. A. K. Pradeep have revealed not only differences in the brains of men and women, but also distinctions in their shopping behaviour and motivations. The evidence is irrefutable – we’re hard-wired differently! So, it makes sense to create a different environment that addresses the needs, desires, concerns and fears of the male shopper.
The Savannah Hypothesis of Shopping
Certainly, the differences between male shoppers and female shoppers are complex. But at the most basic primal level, The Savannah Hypothesis of Shopping (Charles Dennis & Andrew McCall) explains the difference; men are hunters and women are gatherers. This might seem sexist and simplistic given our modern world, but the reality is that men and women have been hard-wired differently since the beginning of time. According to Dr. A. K. Pradeep,
The human brain hasn’t changed much in 100,000 years.
Simply put, men are results-oriented hunters who move purposely towards what they want and derive pleasure from the completion of the task. On the other hand, women are multi-tasking gatherers, constantly searching and comparing, and deriving joy from the process.
So with hard-wired differences in mind, what is it that makes a store more appealing and engaging for the male shopper?
Next time, I’ll share my thoughts on how Holt Renfrew’s stand-alone men’s store caters specifically to male shoppers.
