Retailers focus on exclusive lines

To find Hugo Boss's line of men's clothes you will soon need to head to David Jones. For the Arthur Galan AG label, you should toddle off to Myer.

For those after Industrie clothes, it's back to DJs. But if you want a Blaq shirt, you'll need to get that while you're at Myer.

It's understandable if menswear shoppers are confused.

Hunting for a certain label at David Jones and Myer is becoming more complicated, because an increasing number of menswear lines are being offered by one or the other on an exclusive basis.

For years, womenswear brands have been the focus of a tug-of-war between the big department stores, and many top labels are exclusive to either David Jones or Myer.

And, over the past five years, more and more local and international designer menswear labels have also entered into exclusive deals with the retailers.

This week's announcement by David Jones that it had come to an exclusive arrangement with German menswear fashion label Hugo Boss - currently stocked by both DJs and Myer - follows an increasingly common retail tactic.

"The markets for men's corporate wear and men's branded sportswear have grown strongly over the past five years," says Lauren Magner, an analyst for the research group IBISWorld.

David Jones now has more than 15 luxury men's corporate and sportswear brands, including Ted Baker, Versace, and Dolce and Gabbana.

In response to the rise in online shopping, department stores are opting to stock certain upmarket apparel brands exclusively, she adds.

"These retailers are able to use their size to negotiate competitive contracts with suppliers and secure exclusive agreements with popular labels."

The tactic is especially useful for sought-after international labels, with about 60 per cent of them agreeing to reduce wholesale prices. This, in turn, enables DJs to cut prices on those lines, Magner says, thereby encouraging consumers to spend in-store rather than go online to buy from overseas websites.

By negotiating exclusivity deals with particular labels, a department store does not merely attract all the customers who are fans of those brands. The retailer also avoids the rounds of discounting that can occur when rival department store offers the same lines.

In addition, exclusive arrangements help a department store carve out a unique personality, separating it from the competition.

At David Jones, roughly 75 per cent of its women's and men's fashion labels are offered on a department store exclusive basis. And now Hugo Boss is joining the DJs portfolio.

Hugo Boss says it is moving away from Myer in favour of DJs because it believes its "product and target demographic are best aligned to the David Jones brand portfolio and customer base". Hugo Boss is ranged in only four Myer stores, and will continue to be available in them until March/April 2014.

The idea of selling products that are not available in other department stores has been part of David Jones' thinking for some time, a spokeswoman says.

"That's been our strategy for about 15 years now," she says.

"We've been growing the portfolio of department store-exclusive brands that we have, we continually look at it and refresh it, making sure we offer new and upcoming brands."

Myer recently signed a department store-exclusive deal with Nike, saying it received major benefits by doing so, but a spokesman says Myer does not view exclusivity as the "be all and end all in menswear".

"What is important to us is that our offer is relevant - that is, we inspire him (the customer) and cater for his needs, and that our formats are easy to shop," says Adam Stapleton, Myer's executive general manager merchandise.

"We negotiate exclusive deals where we feel it is important to maintain a differentiated offer for our customers."