Tchibo treats its customers to a new experience every week, and nearly every second week revolves around a fashion topic. The fashion segment at Tchibo has been growing steadily for years, offering fashionable clothing and accessories for all seasons and occasions, at the good value for money people have come to expect from Tchibo. Customers apparently appreciate the concept: Tchibo Fashions are extremely popular.

Tchibo Fashions – A Successful concept

Tchibo designs ‘fashion experiences’: not individual pieces, but entire outfits for every occasion. A soft leather coat is offered alongside shirts and jeans; there are handbags and wallets to match, as well as belts, shoes, makeup sets and lingerie. Tchibo accompanies its fashion customers all year long, from beach vacation to autumn walks, from elegant business occasions to skilful seduction sessions in sophisticated lingerie. The concept is a hit. Since the mid-1980s, Tchibo has been exceedingly successful at selling fashion. At this point the Hamburg-based company offers 25 weekly fashion experiences a year ranging from women’s, men’s and children’s fashion to lingerie, jewellery and sportswear. Tchibo generates around 45 percent of its Non Food revenue with fashion. A 2006 communications study performed by Germany’s leading women’s magazine “Brigitte” puts Tchibo at No.6 in terms of consumer brand acceptance, right behind fashion brands like H&M and Adidas and ahead of brands including Nike, Puma and Benetton. Nearly 70 percent of the over 5,000 women surveyed are familiar with Tchibo as a fashion brand. Statistically speaking, half of all women in Germany own a Tchibo BH, and each baby has two Tchibo shirts.

Expanding the range

The fashion segment is expanding constantly: for several years now, Tchibo has catered specifically for teens and twens, male and female, with two ‘Young Fashion’ collections a year. Every ‘fashion experience’ includes one or two up-to-the-minute ‘must-have products’, which are realised at very short notice and in a limited edition.
Apart from classic fashions, sportswear is an important pillar of the range, with over ten ranges being offered each year. Yoga, golf, trekking, fishing, skiing, sailing, hunting, bicycling or running – Tchibo has the functional sportswear for nearly every type of sport, combining contemporary design with supreme functionality. Tchibo sailing gear has watertight taped seams, skiwear is equipped with Recco reflectors for tracking the wearer in the event of an avalanche, and products worn directly on the skin are designed without irritating seams. Since clothing from specialty retailers is usually very expensive in the sport sector, a growing number of consumers are happy to take advantage of Tchibo’s offers.

Developing the Collections

Tchibo designs and develops all the products in-house. A product management, quality development and purchasing team jointly come up with the products. The product manager creates a piece of clothing in a contemporary design, quality assurance checks it for quality, colour fastness, skin friendliness and durability, and the buyer selects a producer who will be able to deliver the product in the desired quality at a reasonable price. This ensures fashionable items in excellent quality and at a fair price. Customers appreciate this: according to a survey performed by the trade magazine “Textilwirt¬schaft” in December 2005, consumers feel Tchibo offers the best value for money of any clothing vendor. This is a crucial factor for fashion buyers: In the latest Spiegel Outfit Survey (April 2007), 95 percent of consumers indicated that they feel good value for money is very important in fashion.
For inspiration, Tchibo’s product managers attend the major fashion fairs and do store-¬checks in international trend metropolises like New York, Paris and Barcelona. They also work with trend scouts and institutes to stay abreast of emerging fashion topics and trends. “Extensive additional market research gives us a good feeling for our customers’ wishes, which we take into account when designing our collections,” says Vollmoeller. “We don’t just follow the latest trend, but systematically fashion it to suit our customers’ tastes.”

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Helen Rad