FT: It's different for guys

It's different for guys

By Simon Brooke

Published: April 28 2007 03:00 | Last updated: April 28 2007 03:00

If retail is about theatre these days, then department stores are all-singing, all-dancing Broadway productions, with their hordes of glamorous shoppers, acres of designer labels, pumping music and immaculately dressed women poised, like coiled springs, to engulf visitors in the latest fragrance.

How can anyone resist such a retail extravaganza? Very easily - if you're a man, anyway. Smash-and-grab raids for a shirt are one thing but shopping-as-leisure is a step too far from the sports field. Recent research for Amsterdam's Bijenkorf department store revealed that two-thirds of its customers were female, and of those males who did enter the store many were only accompanying wives and girlfriends, not shopping for themselves.

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What's a store in search of male customers to do? Observe, young retailer, observe. "We noticed that men like to find all the things they're interested in in the same area, whereas women like to walk around in the shop," says Bijen-korf's Marieke Heringa. So the company decided to try and redress the balance by creating a stand-alone men's section, combining clothes, accessories, skincare and gadgets in one place. The Dutch store is not the only one to come up with this solution to what is, apparently, a global phenomenon.

Late last year, Selfridges in London opened a new men's casual wear area, while an underwear section opened in January, and this month it is launching a 20,000 sq ft enclave of formal wear. The store has specially commissioned clothes from labels ranging from Levi's to Comme des Garcons for "Shop Like A Man", a six-week celebration that started this week with shop-window displays and special collections from tailors such as Kilgour and Richard James.

"It's about customer flow - we want to make it easier for guys to find what they need by grouping items together," says David Walker-Smith, Selfridges' head of men's wear. "Men have a better understanding now of what they want and what is available to them." The interior design of the new area is stereotypically masculine, with a monochrome colour palette, stainless steel fittings and dark wood floors.

Speed and convenience - not to mention simplicity - are the new clarion call in these vast, product-packed emporia. Magasin du Nord in Copenhagen has just introduced a personal shopping service for men that can kit them out in an hour if necessary, as well as offering them a grooming session after they've shopped.

Bloomingdale's in Manhattan has added seating, sports magazines and televisions to the men's areas to help stressed-out male shoppers to relax. "We hope to make men feel more comfortable and at home by giving them a place to unwind while they're shopping," says Jack Hruska, an executive vice-president with the store.

Meanwhile, over in France, Galeries Lafayette Homme, a vast retail emporium, has proved such a success that the group has just opened BHV Homme, a new department with a New York loft-style interior design, devoted purely to men. The modus operandi? Grouping together a wide range of products aimed at men, so customers in search of a particular thing will know exactly where to go and be able to execute a quick reconnaissance and retreat.

"Our research shows that men don't like complications when they're shopping - they like things to be segmented and set out logically," says Thierry Crampes. "They also like to buy by brand whereas women buy by product."

While in other areas the distinction between men and women is being broken down, department stores are moving in exactly the opposite direction. A great step forward or two steps back? Depends on your gender, I suppose.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007