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I read an interesting blog post by style editor Kim Crowe today, which gives plus size women and retailers in general, some food for thought.
Kim has recently been following some boutique owners around as they select merchandise for late spring/early fall deliveries. Out of the many retailers she has seen, most of them do carry their items in XXL or size 16, but unfortunately only one retailer was one which you would call totally plus size oriented. What’s happening is that plus size people don’t actually know that these sizes are available in these particular places, so they simply do not go to these boutiques. As a consequence, the retailers simply assume that there isn’t a market there for them! As Kim suggests, what this boils down to is merely mis-communication, or actually lack of communication.
What happened to good old market research, and investing in some effective marketing? These retailers need to look around an realize that, yes, the market is there. But plus size people aren’t simply going to notice you carry bigger sizes just by snapping a finger. Promote these sizes throughout the store, in local newspapers or magazines, and online on locally focused sites. There are different ways to get the word out there, and retailers should use these to their advantage, to expand their customer base to include plus sizes.
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