Maurices’ Evsie brand targets tweens with store design, kidfluencers and adaptive options

What it means: Size inclusivity at retail is important to all categories, but until now, its presence in children’s wear was limited. Fostering retail environments and products that celebrate all sizes and provide on-trend and comfortable options for tweens and teens is a clear-cut opportunity across the entire retail industry. Breaking size barriers with consumers across generations also provides the opportunity to build loyalty. Read on for more insights, details, and what's next!) Last year, women's fashion retailer Maurices launched its new tween brand, Evsie. In addition to a presence in its Maurices stores, the retailer also opened three approximately 1,500-square-feet, freestanding Evsie stores located in West Jordan, Utah; Fargo, North Dakota; and Boise, Idaho. “Our brick-and-mortar locations are extremely important to us,” David Kornberg, Maurice’s CEO and president, told Retail Leader Pro. “Our customers primarily shop in our stores. This is where we build strong connections with the women, who are the hearts of our hometowns. Shopping should be a great experience for customers, and we utilize our brick-and-mortar locations to do as such. We want customers to feel like they stepped into a fun, fashionable, exciting experience.” For the standalone Evsie stores, Maurices looked for markets where white space for young girls existed. “Some of these markets also have a strong Maurices’ customer base, which helps create that mother-daughter shopping experience that we initially facilitated by Maurices’ trusted style advisors,” Kornberg said. Evsie’s physical store evolution came about through Maurices' steady stream of market research to determine what its consumers want. “Women, who have long embraced Maurices as a style partner, told us that they wanted the same affordable, ‘feel-good fashion’ for their daughters,” Kornberg said. “In order to reach these women, we needed to expand the Evsie collection to more Maurices locations.” In turn, the tween brand expanded into Maurices' stores with six passthrough locations and more than 240 shop-in-shops. Evsie now is offered in nearly 800 locations, which includes a variety of passthrough locations, shop-in-shops and capsule collections throughout the U.S. and Canada, as well as online at maurices.com and evsie.com. Maurices currently operates nearly 900 stores across the U.S. and Canada. “We felt Evsie would always grow into a fully national brand with broad appeal, so its expansion was just a matter of timing,” Kornberg said. Designed for tweens Evsie in-store design is fun, fashionable and trendy — feelings the brand has also tried to evoke. For example, Evsie has lilac doors that open to a store design inspired by a girl’s room. The store is divided into rooms where consumers can discover her own unique style and build outfits in sizes 7-14. The space is bright and light and includes brightly colored fitting rooms, whimsical elements in the lighting, mirrors and icons, as well as an Instagram-worthy backdrop for taking selfies or photos. “Our in-store Evsie experience was crafted to make every customer feel like a style superstar,” Kornberg said. “It’s a fun, welcoming space where girls can be themselves and discover their own style. Our trusted stylists are known for making each shopping experience feel like a personalized styling session. They are specialized fit experts who can help curate the perfect wardrobe filled with key basics and fun styles.” Evsie showcases the full range of the collection so both tweens and their parents, who help them shop, have a variety of products to explore. “It’s fun and playful, a versatile mix-and-match collection that aims to help every girl discover her own unique style,” Kornberg said. The Evsie collection is anchored by denim, along with plenty of non-denim, in multiple colors and with fun, thoughtful details for the age group. The collection features basics, tanks, t-shirts, shorts, skirts, dresses, rompers, jumpsuits, jackets, sweatshirts, as well as loungewear including bralettes and leggings. The collection also contains Style Superstars, its line of competitively priced everyday essentials. “We display on-trend clothing and accessory styles for each season to keep the collection fresh and new, giving her the option to dress for any occasion and making it a one-stop-shop,” Kornberg said. Maurices is known for being a size-inclusive clothing retailer, and Evsie also expanded its collection to offer adaptive clothing with soft, comfortable fabrics, easy on and off Velcro closures and extra wide openings to fit the needs of more girls and make getting dressed easier. Kidfluencer space While Maurices has a robust product and marketing strategy in place for the brand, one particular area the retailer is growing and evolving are kidfluencers — influencers under the age of 13. “We partner with many kidfluencers across various social media channels, along with mom influencers with Evsie-aged daughters, to showcase our seasonal styles,” Kornberg said. “We collaborate on monthly campaigns to reach more and new audiences to further introduce the Evsie brand. Fans and followers have already established trust with the influencer, and therefore, will likely shop for or explore her fashion recommendations.” Tweens are a multibillion-dollar market, according to Maurices, and it’s important that retailers cater to their specific needs rather than just looking at tweens as just another revenue stream. “That’s what we aim to accomplish with Evsie, creating a collection that will organically evolve and respond to the feedback provided by our youngest shoppers,” Kornberg said. “With tweens spending a large percentage of their money on clothing, shoes and accessories, it’s clear that this retail sector benefits from their spending power, and those tweens are now, and will be, a significant driver for the retail economy. “We also recognize that the tween years can be crucial for girls cultivating their self-image, and hand in hand with that, their self-confidence,” he continued. “So, we created a unique in-store shopping experience that allows tweens to feel confident and stylish.” Maurices currently is studying the needs of its Evsie consumer before the retailer announces any further expansion plans for Evsie. The retailer also is in the process of creating unique in-store activations where young girls can experience a personalized shopping party, including mother-daughter events, hair and nail parties, and fashion fundays. What's next Many retailers have created strategies around inclusive sizing and adaptive clothing, but white space opportunities in children’s wear and shoes exist. While some retailers tend to shut down these programs quickly, staying the course in these endeavors is important to change the industry. Universal standard sizing across brands and retailers should also considered to increase transparency and ensure ease of shopping for consumers.

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