Victoria’s Secret, once giants in the lingerie business, are losing their edge, and it looks like not even their recent overly-hyped annual Fashion Show is able to save them.

The US label has been on the decline since 2016. As of this month, they’ve reported a 2% drop in sales, led by a 6% drop in their physical stores.

The outlet, which has nearly 1 200 stores in America, also continued a rapid decline in sales, shifting it away from its former role as accounting for half of parent company L Brands’ total sales.

Here’s Forbes:

Victoria’s Secret saw its fiscal third-quarter operating income tumble 89%, or a whopping $120 million, to $14.2 million.

In sharp contrast, its once-lagging sister chain Bath & Body Works continued to outperform, with a 13% jump in comparable sales and a 29% surge in operating profit.

Internationally, L Brands’ loss widened sharply, also led by Victoria’s Secret.

L Brands’ shares lost almost two-fifths of their value this year. With the sharp profit drops at Victoria’s Secret, L Brands says that it will be slashing its quarterly dividend by half to $1,20 a share, beginning with the March payout, to save about $325 million in cash.

“Our No. 1 priority is improving performance at Victoria’s Secret Lingerie and Pink,” chairman and CEO Leslie Wexner said in prepared remarks.

“We have lost our close connection to our customer. … Our new leaders are coming in with a fresh perspective and looking at everything … our marketing, brand positioning, internal talent, real estate portfolio and cost structure. Most important is improving our merchandise assortments.”

Let’s face it, men are more interested in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show and catalogues than women, and men aren’t really the target market.

(If you are a man who enjoys wearing lingerie, more power to you.)

The brand’s traditional identity, along with the glammed-up look of its Angels at the center of its brand pitch, is increasingly losing relevance to a growing crop of shoppers seeking to express themselves just the way they are while favoring brands they see as more authentic.

The brand plans on upping sales by unveiling new bras, panties, sleepwear and loungewear. It’s also expanding to include eyewear, shoes and swimwear.

They’re going to have to get with the times if they want to keep up with today’s trends, which are now seemingly inseparable from social media and social activism.

Chief marketing officer Ed Razek remarked in a recent Vogue interview about whether Victoria’s Secret would consider featuring a transgender model in its fashion show: “No, I don’t think we should. Well, why not? Because the show is a fantasy.” That has invited sharp rebukes.

Someone clearly didn’t do his homework.

If Victoria’s Secret doesn’t change things up soon, they could end up fashion history – the obsolete kind.

[source:forbes]