For most swimwear brands, summer is when the majority of sales happen. With more competition in the growing $20 billion industry, swimwear brands are rolling out new campaigns and collaborations to win market share.
According to Melanie Travis, founder of the women’s swim brand Andie Swim, the months between May and August make up about 70% of the brand’s sales. January, when resort season rolls around, is also a big sales period.
Travis said she and her team start prepping for the summer season at the end of the previous year.
“As we wind down our year, we take a look at what worked and what didn’t,” she said. “We decide how many collections we’re going to drop, how big our buys from our manufacturers should be and what our revenue goals will be, which determines our budgets.”
Summer-focused campaigns must be shot in the winter, so Andie’s marketing team travels from its New York City home to locales like Miami and the Bahamas to shoot them. Considering the necessary upfront costs, the hardest part of making the most of the summer season is predicting what will sell, Travis said.
“There have been times where a piece has taken off unexpectedly and we didn’t have that much [stock] of it, which is frustrating,” she said. “You’re leaving money on the table.”
But the brand does have a few sure bets, including a collaboration with actress and producer Mindy Kaling launched last month. The collaboration was Andie’s second with Kaling. Travis said the first was successful enough for the team to increase the number of SKUs from 33 in the first collaboration to 51 in the second.
Swimwear as a category is growing at a rate of nearly 5% per year. Travis said competition in swim has become intense, especially with the arrival of big brands like Skims and Knix, the latter of which released its biggest swim collection yet in April.
“A few years ago, it felt like there were trillions of swim brands and we could see all the smaller brands that would bid on our search terms and show up when you Googled us,” Travis said. “But now there’s been a culling. A lot of those smaller brands have shut down because customer acquisition is so expensive and the only ones still around are the ones with capital to keep up. So there may be fewer brands, but the competition is at a higher level.”
Another one of those big brands focused on swim is J.Crew. J.Crew rolled out a new swim campaign and collaboration this month with the women’s USA swim team ahead of the Olympics. The collection includes swimsuits and other beach-ready clothes like bucket hats and T-shirts for men, women and kids. J.Crew’s svp of brand marketing, Halsey Anderson, told Glossy that swim is a big area of focus for J. Crew right now.
“The collaboration with USA Swimming provided a strong partnership around a key brand category, swim, and in an exciting, consumer-focused way,” Anderson said. “Collaborations are a great way to increase brand relevance, expand audiences, and add fresh perspective to both brand and product.”
Considering the competition, swimwear brands don’t only need to impress customers. During Miami Swim Week, hosted between May 29 and June 5, brands must also cultivate relationships with wholesale retailers. Travis said Andie was present at Miami Swim Week this year, for the second time in its seven years in business, which helped it expand its wholesale presence. Last year, Andie’s sole wholesale partner was Nordstrom, but it has since signed with others like Saks Fifth Avenue and met with more buyers.
This year, Miami Swim Week drew in over 30,0000 attendees and showcased some of the biggest trends dominating swimwear right now, including the continued popularity of the one-piece. The Instagram account @databutmakeitfashion reported that one-piece swimsuits are currently 24% more popular than bikinis, according to a sentiment analysis of the industry.
“I can confirm that trend,” Travis said, adding that one-pieces currently make up about 70% of Andie’s sales. “It’s a trend that’s been happening for a few years now and it’s been beneficial to us since that’s sort of our specialty.”
