Old Navy Launches BODEQUALITY – All Styles are Same Price (Sizes 0-30)
Old Navy’s new shopping experience is for every body!
Old Navy has redesigned its shopping experience to be more inclusive of all body types, and the company will now offer all of its women’s styles in every size (0-30 and SX-4X) with no price difference. Old Navy is now the first value retailer to offer this range of women’s sizes with pricing equality regardless of size.
The store is also updating its shopping environment to be more size-inclusive both online and in-store at all 1,200 of its physical locations. Every store will now offer all women’s styles displayed together, without any separate sections dedicated to special size ranges.
In-store, customers will see mannequins in sizes four, 12, and 18 alongside new BODEQUALITY marketing imagery. Old Navy associates will also receive customer-focused training to ensure that every shopper feels comfortable shopping there.
Online, Old Navy is merging its Women’s and Women’s Plus collections in the navigation menu to provide one shopping experience for sizes 00-30. Women’s styles will be shown on models in sizes four, 12, and 18, with shoppers having the ability to select their preferred model display size.
“We saw an opportunity to meaningfully change the women’s shopping experience by making it more inclusive regardless of size. BODEQUALITY is not a one-time campaign, but a full transformation of our business in service to our customers based on years of working closely with them to research their needs.” – Nancy Green, President and CEO of Old Navy
With the launch of BODEQUALITY, Old Navy also reinvented its fit process and size standards to create clothing meant to fit and flatter every woman, no matter their size. The result is a more consistent size run and fit across the brand.
Visit www.oldnavy.com/bodequality to learn more and to check out Old Navy’s new shopping experience!
The amount of fabric (and labor) to make size XS pants/jeans vs size 4X is huge. As a person who over the years has fluctuated from and between sizes 8 to 18, I appreciate the inclusiveness, just wondering if they’re going to be raising the cost of the clothing for everybody to cover the ‘inclusiveness.’ If so, that’s fine—I just always find different marketing tactics interesting 😉
And, yes, I did see where the article mentions no “price difference,” but this doesn’t mean that the prices won’t be raised—in order to be kept the same.
Yes, that’s one way to raise overall prices under the guise “inclusivity.” Doesn’t seem terribly fair to those who will bear the brunt of the cost.
Exactly!
This is not true. First, the markup in retail is huge to begin with, and Old Navy is no exception. That’s why you can get their clearance items at the end of the season for a fraction of the regular price. To illustrate the point, the clothes are made overseas in factories where workers work in horrific conditions (by American standards) and are paid next to nothing. Second, Old Navy fabric is mostly cheap materials that cost very little to begin with. The typical Old Navy clothing is thin rayon that is see-through, shrinks after one wash, and pills/develops holes after a few washes, or rough cotton that pills/shrinks/fades after a few washes. Therefore, the cost of extra fabric that is cheap to begin with is almost negligible for larger sizes. Third, for mall store clothing like Old Navy, the prices are driven by demand for an item, and not the cost to make. I wear a kids’ size 12 and I am short. I often find that my XXSP clothes are often priced higher than “regular size” because there is less demand for petite clothing than the identical item in regular size, even though my clothes require substantially less material to make. In other words, if a retailer stocked ten items in a size 12 regular versus ten of the same item in size 00P, then the retailer is more likely to have more of the size 00P leftover at the end of the season because there isn’t as much demand for the 00P. This means that more of the 00P will go on clearance, and the retailer’s profits will be lower than had the retailer stocked ten size 12 regulars The retailer factors this in and therefore charges more for the 00P to begin with. As someone who finds it very difficult to find age-appropriate clothes that actually fit, I applaud Old Navy for this move, although I personally do not shop there.
Came here to say all of this. Thanks!
Well i agree there is a difference in the amount of fabric used, there is also a big difference between a size 0 and size 12 but no price difference. Only when the “plus size”
start the cost go up.
Exactly! There is a large difference in material amounts in the “regular” size range from 0-14. Yet prices are automatically higher starting at size 16.
Part of the reason for this is because they have to create new patterns after a certain point. Depending on the item, a designer can just scale up the basic pattern. Eventually the proportions become off and wouldn’t be able to fit properly beyond a given size. There is more that goes into it than just companies hating bigger sized people.
This is a step in the right direction. Bravo. I don’t care if prices go up a few pennies on the regular sizes I buy (and maybe they won’t). They may sell more clothes to all women and make up the difference in more sales.
does that mean they will start having tall sizes in store? I hate having to go into the store, try on what I want and then try to figure out what I liked online to get it in tall
Or the same thing in the opposite direction: Does this mean that they will actually carry petite sizes in the store? Or will those of us who are short still have to guess and order online?
Well, that would be “inclusive,” wouldn’t it? But I doubt it. This plus-size thing is more about courting a growing market segment while simultaneously leveraging higher prices across its core line than about true inclusivity. When height becomes an emergent market, retailers will unroll the PC carpet for you, too. Til then, it’s not really worth it to them.
Same issue here!
I’m grateful they will have all of the sizes together. I used to be a standard size, but becoming plus-sized was an upsetting wakeup call. Some retailers put plus sized clothes on a completely different floor than the standard sizes, and they are different clothes than what they offer for everyone else, sometimes much uglier. It makes me feel like they don’t see me as a human. It’s also not fun to go shopping with people and to have to leave the group to find stuff that will fit me.
Very well said JenB!
Welcome to the club. I’m petite and it’s been like that for years.
I’m 5’1. I wear normal shirts and the shortest jeans I can find. I don’t seek out petite clothes since they were difficult to find to begin with, and now that I’m obese there aren’t petite clothes in my size.
I love the messaging my daughter will see in old navy now, rather than what I grew up seeing in malls. I love the use of mannequins of different builds. I’ve noticed target using mannequins with differences like use of a wheelchair. Just love it. A company won’t get “inclusion” to be completely representative, but I think this is a great step forward.
Without this new campaign prices would have gone up regardless. I’ve hardly seen anything not going up in price. It’s a new world out there.