Destination XL Tops Ranking of Omnichannel Retailers
Earlier this month, Total Retail released its seventh annual ranking of 100 leading retailers and brands based on the omnichannel services offered across their organizations (e.g., supply chain, loyalty, payments, customer service), and the execution of those services. The comprehensive report identifies the companies performing best at delivering frictionless cross-channel shopping experiences.
As part of the 2023 evaluation process, Total Retail assessed each retailer’s website, judging them on the following nine criteria:
- the ability for customers to buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS);
- buy online, pick up curbside;
- search for in-store product availability on a brand’s digital properties (desktop site, mobile site, mobile app);
- have a shared cart across channels for logged-in shoppers (e.g., mobile site to desktop; app to desktop);
- earn and redeem loyalty points/rewards across channels;
- return products across channels (e.g., return online purchases in-store);
- pay for purchases in-store via a mobile wallet and/or app;
- access customer service help across multiple channels; and
- make purchases and check in-store stock levels via a mobile app.
After all the data had been collected and tabulated, the company sitting atop this year's rankings was Destination XL.
The specialty retailer of men’s big and tall clothing and shoes has created a loyal customer base by catering to its unique needs, both in product and service. With regards to the latter, Destination XL was the only retailer in this year’s assessment to earn 100 percent of the available points for its omnichannel services. Destination XL has committed itself to improving its customers’ shopping experiences and it’s paying off.
Case in point: In its most recent fiscal year, Destination XL Group reported record sales of $545.8 million, an increase of 10.9 percent year-over-year. In fact, the company has posted eight consecutive quarters of positive comparable sales and two consecutive years of double-digit adjusted EBITDA margins. The company’s transformational plan to create products and experiences for the underserved big and tall community is working.
That plan is evident in Destination XL’s new brand initiative, Wear What You Want. The campaign encompasses DXL’s commitment to its customers by highlighting the retailer’s unparalleled fit expertise, broad assortment of brands and style options, highest standards of quality, and unique experience. DXL calls this unique combination of offerings The DXL Factor, and it believes every big and tall man deserves to have it.
“We remain focused on our primary objective of serving the underserved big and tall consumer by providing him the opportunity to wear what he wants,” said Harvey Kanter, Destination XL Group’s president and CEO, in a company press release announcing its 2022 fiscal year results. “We launched our new brand initiative, Wear What You Want, further supporting this positioning. We believe our greater gains in market share, by increasing brand awareness and introducing our guy to the breadth of exclusivity in our assortment, will give him the freedom to choose his own style. At DXL, big and tall is all we do and we trade on the belief that we offer superior fit, assortment and experience to him. This leads to a deeper level of engagement and relationship with our customers that’s built on respect, trust and belonging.”
Looking forward, DXL is implementing a long-range strategic growth plan to meaningfully accelerate the trajectory of the company through three specific growth initiatives: marketing and brand-building, store development, and alliances/collaborations. One such collaboration is with UNTUCKit, announced in October. UNTUCKit has created a capsule collection for DXL, aimed to bring “The Original Untucked Shirt” to even more customers with Big + Tall extended sizing. The assortment consists of classic UNTUCKit shirts, made to fit big and tall guys, in new sizes and lengths never offered before.
You can download the report here to see the full rankings as well as profiles of the top performers. In addition, there is valuable trend information extracted from this year's data.
