Walmart has never been the cool place to shop. You might buy clothes there because it’s cheap and practical, but it’s not a fashion destination.
The chain, however, sits only behind Amazon — another retailer selling clothes based on price more than being fashionable — when it comes to clothing sales.
Walmart ranks second only to Amazon in U.S. apparel and footwear sales, according to a Wells Fargo industry analysis cited by CNBC.
Amazon’s market share in the apparel and footwear segment reached nearly 13% in 2024, with sales of more than $67 billion, more than double Walmart’s roughly $32 billion, according to the Wells Fargo analysis.
Denise Incandela, Walmart’s executive vice president of fashion, who has been with the company for almost 10 years, admitted that the chain was not really in the fashion business when she arrived.
“We were mostly in the socks and underwear business,” she told Modern Retail. “There was a lot of effort that was needed to make it a legit, credible [player].”
Much of that work has taken place, and Walmart’s fashion boss was blunt about what needed to be done.
“While we were winning on price, price alone does not make value,” Incandela said. “We were not winning on quality, aesthetic and style, so that’s where we’ve been pursuing this opportunity.”
Now, Incandela will lead Walmart’s new “Style Strategic Business Unit,” which merges its fashion, home, and beauty businesses, according to a memo to merchandising employees from Chief Merchant Julie Barber, shared with Retail Dive.
Walmart is making a play to be more fashionable
Walmart isn’t just trying to make its clothing more chic. It’s trying to upgrade how consumers see its offerings across clothing, home, and beauty. They don’t mention their rival, but as someone who has covered the retail space for 30 years, it looks like an effort to make Walmart feel more like Target.
“Our customers and members are looking to us for inspiration, relevant trends and solutions for their lives, whether they’re shopping Fashion, Home, Beauty or across our broader assortment in-store and online,” Barber wrote.
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“Winning in style requires us to operate differently,” she added.
The changes include hiring a senior vice president of fashion merchandising and promoting Laura Janney to senior vice president of Women’s, Intimates, and Men’s.
In a May 2024 Bloomberg opinion piece, Andrea Felsted actually warned Target that Walmart was moving toward its core market.
“Walmart is moving in fast on the higher-income shoppers who have long been Target Corp’s bread and butter. To withstand the onslaught from the big box titan, Target needs to do more of the things that earned it its ‘Tarzhay’ moniker: cheap chic that can’t be found elsewhere, and collaborations with the world’s leading designers,” she wrote.
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Target understands that it needs to change
New Target CEO Michael Fiddelke has embraced the idea that Target needs to recapture its past magic.
“In light of our focus on merchandising authority and elevating the guest experience, Q2 saw the completion of the largest volume of in-store transitions of any quarter over the past decade,” he said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call.
Those efforts go beyond revitalizing its clothing assortment. It’s an overall effort to improve both merchandise and the in-store experience.
“Those changes included layout changes encompassing nearly half of our center store grocery assortment, a complete reimagination of our Fun 101 floor pad, replacing nearly 3/4 of our decorative accessories assortment in home and continuing to deliver limited-time partnerships that reinforce Target as the destination for what’s new, on trend and culturally relevant,” he added.
Jefferies analyst Corey Tarlowe shared a recent note that supported Target’s efforts and progress.
The chain, he shared, has expanded wellness offerings, added 3,000 beauty products across 60 new brands, reset 75% of home decorative accessories, accelerated food and beverage innovation, and introduced a back-to-school assortment that is more than 50% new.
“The longtime Target bull thinks the market may be underestimating the durability of the traffic benefits from the big box retailer’s ‘merchandising reset,’” Yahoo Finance reported.
Some analysts, however, remain cautious.
“Investor expectations are very elevated into Target’s second quarter print, but we believe the more important debate is whether improving store and merchandising execution supports confidence in growth durability in FY27 and beyond,” Deutsche Bank analyst Krisztina Katai told Yahoo Finance.
Walmart faces an identity challenge
On a weekend, it’s fairly typical for me to go to Target, get a coffee at Starbucks, and wander around the store. I might buy clothing (about 15% of my wardrobe comes from the chain), pick up some fill-in groceries, or buy something that catches my eye.
Or, I might just do a lap of the store, finish my coffee, and leave.
I’ll go to Walmart if they have something I need or when it’s the most convenient option, but I’d never go there just to browse.
That’s part of the problem Walmart has to solve, according to RTM Nexus CEO Dominick Miserandino.
“The hardest thing Walmart has to change isn’t the clothing, it’s the perception of the clothing. If consumers start walking into Walmart expecting to find something fashionable, that changes the competitive equation for Target. Price was always Walmart’s advantage. Style becoming part of the equation makes them much more dangerous,” he told TheStreet.
Target makes its own move
Just a few days after Walmart’s announcement, Target made a move in the same space.
Target Corporation is lowering prices on nearly 2,000 home and apparel & accessories items, according to a press release.
“By continuing to lower prices across our assortment, we’re making it even easier for busy families to create moments of joy this fall with the style, design and exceptional value they can only find at Target,” Chief Merchandising Officer Cara Sylvester said.
The items with lower prices include:
- Apparel and shoes: Lower prices across women’s, men’s, infant and toddler apparel and shoes for the entire family, with select items priced 20% or more lower than last year.
- The average price of women’s shoes is $35, down from $40 2025.
- The average price of kids’ rain and winter boots is down approximately 15% from last year.
- Home: A fully refreshed bedding assortment, with prices 15% lower, on average, including:
- Threshold queen comforters are now $69, down from $89.
- Room Essentials queen comforters are now $40, down from $50
- Threshold performance queen sheets are now $50, down from $55.
Target Circle Deal Days run Oct. 6-7, a week after these cuts.
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