Twilight Helps Hot Topic Boost Sales
Posted on January 18, 2009
There is an interesting article in California Apparel News that says Hot Topic has been one of the few apparel retailers that managed to increase sales in the fourth quarter. Other retailers with good fourth quarters including American Apparel, The Buckle Inc. and Aeropostale Inc. Part of the reason for Hot Topic's success was they sold products tied in with the popular Twilight movie.
The items have been so popular that there was even an incident when frenzied Twilight fans became unruly outside the Hot Topic store at the Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco. The store had to limit the number of people allowed in the store at a time. The real reason for the frenzy was not entirely the merchandise - there were Twilight cast members inside the store.
Here's video coverage of one of the events attended by Twilight stars.
What will happen when the Twilight films end? Liz Pierce from Roth Capital Partners told , "There's no question 'Twilight' is drawing more customers to the store. Will they stop coming in if their 'Twilight' viewership declines? It's hard to say."
Hot Topic carries about 100 different Twilight items including shirts, books, pins, posters, key chaints, totes and hoodies. They may not be able to sell the Twilight perfume for much longer if Puig wins its lawsuit against the manufacturer but they carry plenty of other Twilight merchandise besides the perfume.
An ApparelNews.net article says things are not as rosy at Torrid which is a plus-sized store also owned by Hot Topic. It's also not clear if Twilight products will be enough to keep Hot Topic sales up with consumers still cutting back on spending but it does give them an edge as interest in Twilight doesn't seem to be waning.