Truth By Numbers: The Hunter-Target Collab

Designer collaborations may not be the novelty they once were, yet Target can still draw the fashion masses with their designer mashups. Whether it's Victoria Beckham, Altuzarra, or Missoni, they have mastered the art of high-low chic. Well, that was the case until its latest collaboration with Hunter failed to deliver the one product the brand is famous for - its rain boots (or wellies as we're pretending to be British on the day a new royal munchkin has been born.)

What happened? Target ran into major production issues that resulted in products that "simply didn't meet our standards, Hunter’s standards, or the standards we want guests to have when they shop at Target." So they decided to pull the plug on the line's planned boot offering. Well - that's a bummer - and a major miss for a retailer who usually gets these things so right.

Nonetheless, it's still a major brand launch, so we wanted to see how it has performed thus far. And we were also curious as to how it compares with its full price counterpart, sold in premium department stores like Bloomingdales and Nordstrom.

The Target collab is certainly a wallet-friendly one, with the average price for one of the products (which included items like bags, raincoats, and umbrellas) ringing in at $27 - 70% of the range was priced at $30 or less. Compare this with its full-price range which averages $131 - and a third of the Hunter product assortment is priced above $150. Don't know about you, but I definitely don't mind an 80% discount. And shoppers seem to agree - with 30% of the Target offering having sold out since it launched. Despite April showers, the full-price line isn't having quite the same sell-through rate - 8% having moved off the virtual shelves during the same time period.

Our forecast? Shoppers who were looking to score a bargain pair of signature Hunter wellies are going to have to resort to full-price or look for a sale on the regular line of products at a department store (or one of its off-price cousins.)

In the meantime, steer clear of those puddles, and don't forget to check out our weekly Truth By Numbers feature for data insights into the latest e-commerce headlines.