Fossil Group says that UK retailers are reporting “huge success” with smartwatches in the early Christmas trading period.
Richard Collins, managing director of Fossil Group UK says Fossil Q and Michael Kors smartwatches are leading the evolution of this category.
“All signs are pointing to our Group connected devices being THE gifts this Christmas,” he tells WatchPro.
Michael Kors Access has been a huge success for every retailer that Fossil Group has worked with. The connected watches are on sale at WatchStation in House of Fraser, Michael Kors boutiques, Ernest Jones, Beaverbrooks and selected independents including Hugh Rice in Hull.
“Sell in has exceeded our expectations whilst sell out on wearables has put a smart watch style as number one SKU in the sales mix,” Mr Collins reveals.
The strength of the Michael Kors brand with female customers is particularly significant in regard to smartwatch sales, which have been traditionally skewed toward young male customers.
“We have seen a significant uptake from women on the smart category driving over 80% of the sales as we see women enjoying the perfect mix of fashion and technology,” Mr Collins describes.
Janet Errington, Fossil’s head of heritage brands, which includes Michael Kors, describes the sort of sales performance that will have other retailers adjusting their expectations for smartwatch sales this year.
“Following our extensive global marketing launch campaign, our number one bestseller is the yellow gold Bradshaw display watch (pictured above) which has been heavily featured across all social media channels. Unsurprisingly Rose Gold is a very close second with the new silver edition shortly launching to market,” she discloses.
Online sales have been fired up across the Michael Kors range where retailers have put them on sale. “We’ve been very encouraged by the strength of online sales and particularly pleased with the halo effect on the overall brand on sales where the Access collection has launched,” she adds.
I find this very hard to believe, sounds like marketing bull. Everyone knows Fossil Group is in deep trouble to due sales in free fall over the past year.
well, Fossil is the only player that made meaningful efforts to respond to the smartwatch trend. All other players that come from the traditional wristwatch business have little (if anything) to offer in this area…Things might look tough right now, but mid to long term, these guys will be the only ones able to compete with the tech giants out there I think…