Female golf fashion has grown considerably over recent years, not just in terms of choice including styles, colors and fabrics, but the increase in the number of new brands entering the market, many of which are female-led businesses.
We caught up with Erica Sellers, merchant for women’s golf apparel at PGA TOUR Superstore to understand the company’s buying-in process, where she believes the direction of women’s golf fashion is heading, and what we can expect to see in the future across the chain of 72 stores, which will increase to 74 by the end of 2024.
How much does apparel contribute to the total PGA TOUR Superstore volume, and what is the demographic split?
Men’s and women’s apparel represents about 22% of total company sales per year. Within that figure, men’s is around 16% and women’s is 6%. We have 14 stores that we refer to as resort stores, located in Florida, Arizona and Palm Desert, and these stores are extremely important, accounting for 40% of our total women’s apparel business.
PGA TOUR Superstore offers a vast selection of women’s golf apparel
(Image credit: PGA TOUR Superstore)
What is the process for deciding which brands to offer?
My planning partner and I consider a couple of things when we decide where to test a new brand, but it usually ends up being in the resort stores as they are high volume. The thought process is that if a brand doesn’t do well in those stores, then it probably wouldn’t do well in a smaller footprint store.
We take into consideration the outlook of the brand as it might not always resonate with a store’s target customer. For instance, Lily Pulitzer is resort driven, it’s very coastal, bright colors and prints, so that’s a brand we probably wouldn’t put in all stores.
In what ways do you believe the women’s golf fashion landscape has changed, and how is PGA TOUR Superstore adapting to those changes?
I’ve been a women’s merchant my entire career, but my background is not in golf apparel. When I joined PGA TOUR Superstore just over a year ago, it was evident that the apparel space was changing, especially in women’s with the introduction of so many new golfers and their personal style over the past few years. I felt there was a need to shake things up a bit and offer consumers more variety and…
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