Walmart Thinks Inside The (Subscription) Box For Kids’ Clothing

To deliver personalized kids’ fashions to customers, retailers are teaming up with players in the subscription box space.

Walmart, for instance, is partnering with KIDBOX to offer curated styleboxes for kids that customers can receive on a seasonal basis. Through the offering, customers on Walmart.com can access styles from brands such as Butter Super Soft, C&C California, Puma and BCBG. The stylebox will encompass four to five products for a price that the company says is “approximately 50 percent off the suggested retail price for the group of bundled items.”

Walmart U.S. eCommerce Head of Fashion Denise Incandela said in an announcement for the offering, “We are thrilled to partner with KIDBOX to introduce our first kids’ subscription apparel service offering premium fashion brands at a substantial savings. Over the last year, we have significantly expanded our portfolio of kids’ fashion brands as part of our broader effort to establish Walmart.com as a destination for fashion. Our partnership with KIDBOX enables us to round out our offering with additional national and premium kids’ brands.”

Shoppers who want to purchase the offering take a short online style quiz for their children. KIDBOX stylists then customize each box based on the season, the child’s location and his or her style preferences.

Parents can schedule delivery on demand, and can sign up for automatic shipments for back-to-school, changing seasons and holidays. The stylebox will be available in sizes 0 to 16 for boys and 0 to 14 for girls, with products ranging from graphic T-shirts to denim, sweaters and dresses.

The retailer said the offering “complements” the growing fashion assortment of Walmart.com. The site showcases over 100 new brands brought to the platform over the last year, such as The Children’s Place, Limited Too and Betsey Johnson. The company also said the Athletic Works and Wonder Nation private brands “continue to offer on-trend, high-quality fashion at low prices,” and that they have expanded inclusive sizing through its private brands in its stores and online.

The Kids Subscription Clothing Market

Beyond Walmart, other well-known brands are looking to roll out subscription offerings for children’s clothing. Earlier this month, news surfaced that Rent the Runway planned to debut a kids’ apparel collection. The new service from the clothing subscription company would include girls’ sizes from 3Y to 12Y initially. The firm is working with designers like Fendi, Stella, Little Marc Jacobs, McCartney, Milly Minis and LoveShackFancy Kids, among others, for the offering. (As of the writing of this article, a selection of kidswear was available on the RTR website.)

Rent The Runway CEO Jennifer Hyman noted in an interview with Forbes earlier this month, “Many of our members have kids and are the primary shoppers, so giving them access to clothing for their children was a no-brainer. Kids are constantly growing, making rental the perfect and environmentally sustainable solution – especially for fashion-forward or high-formality items. And kids are messy. Who wants to dry-clean a kid’s dress?”

According to Euromonitor research, the global children’s apparel industry is worth $203 billion and said to be growing 5 percent a year. At the same time, children outgrow clothes fast: By the age of two, kids have already been through an average of seven clothing sizes.

Rent The Runway and Walmart are not the only companies to roll out children’s offerings amid this trend. During an earnings call last June, Stitch Fix revealed the upcoming launch of Stitch Fix Kids. Stitch Fix Founder and CEO Katrina Lake said the new service “is a testament to the scalability of our platform.” Lake continued at the time, “We’re excited for Stitch Fix to style everyone in the family and to create an effortless way for parents to shop for themselves and their children. Our goal is to provide unique, affordable kids’ clothing in a wide range of styles, giving our littlest clients the freedom to express themselves in clothing that they love and feel great wearing.”

From Stitch Fix to Rent the Runway and Walmart, big brands are throwing their hats in the ring to bring kids’ clothing to their customers with the help of the subscription business model.