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On Thursday, Abercrombie & Fitch surprised the markets with a less-than-stellar earnings report: a 10% decline in sales for its Hollister brand, and 6% for its Abercrombie & Fitch adult clothing division. Its stock price fell as a result, and the company also announced a move away from logo-branded clothing to more fashionable outfits, along with quicker production processes. We can also blame the economy, more aggressive marketing from competitive brands, and other trends that have contributed to declining revenue for older brands.

Aside from dialing down the use of logos on its clothing, what else can A&F do to drive revenue and return as a trendier, more exciting brand to its customers? We have three strategic ideas that have worked with other brands, and if we were executives at the company, we’d aim to do these as soon as possible.

#1: Involve your market in your fashion product development

Your customers are passionate about your brand — so get their feedback and suggestions on what your lineup should look like. Take the example of modcloth.com, which gets its entire customer base involved in designing new clothing. Visit their “Be the Buyer” site, and you’ll be able to vote on proposed dresses, blouses, and shoes. Dislike the frizzy outer layer of a dress? Vote against it, or tell the designer to change it.

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According to Susan Gregg-Koger, ModCloth’s founder, involving their customers in the actual product design leads to clothing selling out more quickly (and as a result, higher revenues and stock prices, if ModCloth were public like A&F).

A&F should make its current site more interactive to customer feedback and suggestions, so that it can actually collect opinions about its clothing and develop new products that take into account the feedback.

#2: Personalize the customer’s online experience

Are all customers moving away from clothing that features the A&F logo? Personally, I would happily wear an A&F logo, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Rather than remove an entire portion of its business, A&F should focus on collecting more data about its customer base, and ultimately segment each individual into groups related to its internal lines of business.

When reviewing the A&F site, it’s clear that I am not being segmented — and there is scant evidence that any marketing information is being collected about me. As I browsed their jeans section, I was recommended other jeans that I might like, but I wasn’t sure if this was helping me or distracting me from my potential purchases.

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Other retailers try and make product recommenders that diversify your browsing and get you to increase your basket size. Companies like Akira, for example, provide Complete the Look recommendations that encourage you to pair your latest purchase of summer pants with other pieces and accessories — shirts, socks, and everything else to complete a summer look.

Personalization of this sort can yield significant increases in revenue — we often see double-digit improvements in total revenue, and even higher growth in average order value for individual purchases.

#3: … and personalize the store itself, too

Whether you’re giving your reps iPads so they can browse the online site with in-store visitors, or fusing your mobile app with an interesting in-store experience, there are numerous ways that stores today are leveraging technology to make the purchasing process more interesting, exciting, personalized, and lucrative.

Given that A&F stores are experiencing revenue declines, taking a more technical approach could help bring more traffic into stores themselves, and ideally increase basket sizes of those who end up making purchases.

There are three parts to this strategy which we would explore as soon as possible:

  1. Use iBeacon technologies to promote offers, deals, and opportunities as people pass by your stores.
  2. Use a mobile app (or a social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc.) to incentivize people to drop into your stores.
  3. Make your sales reps “style consultants” – give ’em an iPad, train them on the latest fashion trends, and encourage them to help in-store visitors pick out their clothing. As a side benefit, you can also ask them survey questions during the process to gauge where trends are going (and find out your logo wear is less-than-exciting before it’s too late).

Conclusion

A&F faces a difficult challenge in the coming months, but don’t count it out just yet. The iconic company still has instant brand recognition across much of the world, and more than 1,000 retail stores. As its business shifts, the strategies we shared above can revitalize the business by giving it the data it needs to make key decisions, and by building long-term, and valuable relationships with its target market. Abercrombie & Fitch, we wish you luck!