Tilly's, Inc. (Tillys) is a destination specialty retailer of casual apparel, footwear, accessories, and hardgoods for young men, young women, boys and girls with an extensive assortment of iconic global, emerging, and proprietary brands rooted in an active, outdoor and social lifestyle.
Tillys operated various stores in 33 states as of February 1, 2025. The company’s stores are located in malls, lifestyle centers, ‘power’ centers, community centers, outlet centers, and street-front locations a...
Tilly's, Inc. (Tillys) is a destination specialty retailer of casual apparel, footwear, accessories, and hardgoods for young men, young women, boys and girls with an extensive assortment of iconic global, emerging, and proprietary brands rooted in an active, outdoor and social lifestyle.
Tillys operated various stores in 33 states as of February 1, 2025. The company’s stores are located in malls, lifestyle centers, ‘power’ centers, community centers, outlet centers, and street-front locations across 86 markets in 33 states. Customers may also shop online at www.tillys.com, where it features the same assortment of products as is carried in its brick-and-mortar stores, supplemented by additional online-only styles.
Strategies
The key elements of the company’s strategy include driving comparable store sales improvement; growth opportunity in e-com; improving inventory allocation and management; enhancing omni-channel capabilities; and real estate opportunities.
Merchandising
The company seeks to be viewed by its customers as the destination for the apparel, footwear, accessories, and hardgoods that best represent their active, outdoor, and social lifestyles. The company offers a compelling selection of global, specialty and emerging brands, styles, colors, sizes and price points to ensure its customers have a variety of choices every time they visit its stores. The company's extensive selection of third-party and proprietary merchandise allows it the opportunity to identify and address trends more quickly, and offer a greater range of price points. The company offers a mix of merchandise for young men, young women, boys, and girls across the apparel, footwear, accessories, and hardgoods categories. This category mix contributes to its broad demographic appeal. The company's apparel merchandise includes branded, fashion, and core styles for tops, outerwear, bottoms, swim, and dresses. Accessories merchandise includes backpacks, hydration bottles, hats, sunglasses, small electronics and accessories, handbags, watches, jewelry, and more. The company focuses on its merchandise presentation and varies the visual displays in its stores, windows, and website throughout the month, presenting new looks and fashion combinations to its customers.
The company's ability to maintain an image consistent with its customers' lifestyles is important to its branded vendors and provides it better access to a wide assortment of products and styles. The company's third-party and proprietary branded merchandise includes a broad selection of lifestyle and emerging brands. The company strives to keep its merchandise mix current by continuously introducing emerging brands and styles in order to identify and respond to the evolving desires of its customers.
Selected third-party brands include: adidas, Affliction, Asics, BDG, Billabong, Birkenstock, Brixton, Converse, CVLA, Crocs, Dickies, Dr. Martens, Ed Hardy, edikted, Ethika, Free People, Herschel Supply Co., HUF, Jansport, Katin, Levi's, Lira, Mitchell & Ness, New Balance, Nike and Nike SB, Nixon, O'Neill, Obey, Owala, Primitive. Reebok, Rhythm, Riot Society, Rip Curl, Roxy, RVCA, Salty Crew, Santa Cruz, Seager, Sendero Provisions Co., Stance, Stanley, The North Face, Vans, Volcom, Von Dutch, and 47 Brand.
The company supplements its third-party merchandise assortment with its own proprietary brands across many of its product categories. Examples of the company’s proprietary brands, ranked by total net sales generated in fiscal 2024, included:
RSQ: Denim, apparel, accessories and fragrance brand for young men, young women and kids.
Full Tilt: Apparel and accessories brand for young women and girls.
tillys: Apparel brand for young women.
West of Melrose: Apparel and accessories for young women.
E-Com
The company's digital platform is an extension of its brand and retail stores, offering substantially the same merchandise assortment as offered in its stores but with opportunities to provide extensions of that same assortment online, whether in terms of sizing or particular styles that may not be available in stores at a particular point in time, providing the company's customers a seamless shopping experience. The company's target customer regularly shops online through various digital channels and mobile applications in addition to visiting stores. The company's website serves both as a sales channel and a marketing tool to its extended customer base, including those customers in markets where it does not have stores. For example, the company sells merchandise to customers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia while having physical stores in just 33 states. The company's fully-integrated digital platform reinforces the Tillys brand image and serves as an advertising vehicle for its retail stores. Similar to the merchandising approach in its stores, the company frequently changes the look of its website to highlight new brands and products. The company utilizes multiple tools to drive traffic online and to its stores, including its marketing materials in its retail stores, search engine marketing, paid social media marketing, online ad placement, shopping site partnerships, third-party affiliations, email marketing, digital marketing, SMS marketing, and push notifications. In addition, the company utilizes its website to offer current information on its upcoming events, promotions, and store locations.
Marketing and Advertising
The company’s marketing approach is designed to create an authentic connection with its customers by consistently generating excitement for its brand and the active, outdoor and social lifestyle it represents. The company utilizes an omni-channel marketing strategy to connect with its customers and drive traffic to its stores and online platform, comprises the following:
Loyalty Program: The company has a customer loyalty program wherein customers accumulate points based on purchase activity. Once a loyalty member achieves a certain point level, the member earns awards that may be used towards the purchase of merchandise. Once an award is earned, the company's loyalty program allows customers to redeem their award instantly towards the purchase of merchandise or to continue to build up to additional awards over time. The company expires unredeemed awards and accumulated partial points 365 days after the customer's purchase date on which those awards or points were earned. This program is designed to interact with its customers in a more direct and targeted manner, and to provide more insight into their shopping behaviors and preferences. The company is actively engaging with customers through Tillys Rewards by offering early access to product launches, events, and promotional deals to loyalty members. The company is also using the data and information provided by loyalty members to personalize the experience for the user and improve the communication and offering.
Social Media: The company's customers find new brands and seasonal trends through the use of social media. The company creates engaging and timely content across a variety of social media platforms to share the latest trends, brands, seasonal collections, and trending memes to keep its audience of fans and followers engaged with its content. The company's influencer strategy, in the support of driving brand awareness and growth, is designed to connect customers to key styles, categories, trends, and activities that are authentic to the Tillys brand.
Digital Marketing: The company uses digital marketing to drive new customers to Tillys.com and its stores. The company employs multiple forms of digital advertising, including pay-per-click, display, retargeting, paid social, and affiliate marketing. The company continues to invest in digital marketing to grow its overall business.
Email Marketing: The company utilizes email marketing to build awareness, drive traffic to its stores and online platform, and promote local in-store promotions and events. The company consistently sends emails to the customers in its proprietary database to introduce new brands and products, offer promotions on select merchandise, highlight key events, and announce new store openings. The company personalizes emails and communications to its customers and audiences.
Brand Partnerships: The company partners and collaborates with its vendors around exclusive events like photo opportunities, in-store performances, contests, demos, online marketing, giveaways, shopping sprees, and VIP trips. The company organizes a variety of events, many involving influencers, musicians, and athletes. Through brand partnerships, such as these, the company is able to connect with and engage its customers in an exciting, authentic way. The company is also partnering with brands in co-op marketing in an effort to grow awareness and increase brand sales.
Community Outreach: The company supports the Tilly’s Life Center Foundation (TLC), a non-profit charitable organization created by its co-founder, Tilly Levine, which seeks to empower youth and improve their self-confidence through a variety of educational programs. The company has given its customers the opportunity to support TLC with point-of-sale donations by allowing them to elect to round up their purchases to the nearest dollar and donate the rounded-up portion to TLC.
Distribution
The company processes and distributes merchandise to its stores through a 126,000 square foot distribution facility co-located with its headquarters in Irvine, California. The company's distribution center infrastructure includes warehouse management systems, material-handling equipment, radio frequency technologies, and automated sortation systems to enhance its processing speed and support its business needs. The company ships merchandise to its stores multiple times per week, providing them with a steady flow of both new and replenishment products. Merchandise is shipped in a floor-ready condition (having price tickets, sensor tags, and hangers when required), allowing store employees to spend less time on merchandise processing tasks and more time serving its customers. The company uses its own fleet of trucks to transport merchandise to its Southern California stores and third-party distributors to transport merchandise to stores outside of its local area.
The company also operates an 81,000 square foot e-commerce fulfillment center in Irvine, California, to process e-com orders in a highly automated environment that leverages material-handling equipment, automated systems, and other technologies consistent with its distribution facility in order to support its e-com business.
Competition
The company competes with various publicly-traded and privately-held teen-oriented apparel retailers for customers, store locations, store associates and management personnel, including but not limited to Abercrombie & Fitch, Aeropostale, American Eagle Outfitters, Boot Barn, The Buckle, H&M, Hollister, Hot Topic, Pacific Sunwear, Urban Outfitters, and Zumiez. In addition, the company competes with online marketplaces, such as Amazon; and online retailers, such as Shein, Revolve, Temu, and Fashion Nova.
Trademarks
‘Ambitious’, ‘Blue Crown’, ‘Destined’, ‘Eldon’, ‘Full Tilt’, ‘If it’s not here...it’s not happening’, ‘Infamous’, ‘RSQ’, ‘RSQ by Tillys’, ‘RSQ Skate’, ‘Sky and Sparrow’, ‘Tilly's’, ‘Tilly’s Clothing & Shoes’, ‘Tilly's Clothing Shoes Accessories, ‘Tillys Home’, ‘Vindicated’, ‘West of Melrose’, ‘2/S Tillys’, and ‘2/Second Saturdays’ and logos related to some of these names, are among the company’s trademarks registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Seasonality
Due to the seasonal nature of the retail industry, the company has historically experienced fluctuations in its revenues and net income. Net revenues are typically smallest in the first quarter and largest during the fourth quarter (year ended February 1, 2025) of a given fiscal year. The company’s net sales fluctuate significantly in relation to various holidays and other peak shopping periods, including but not limited to the Thanksgiving and year-end holiday season, the back-to-school season, spring break periods, and other holidays. The level of the company’s working capital reflects the seasonality of its business.
History
Tilly’s, Inc., a Delaware corporation, was founded in 1982. The company was incorporated in 2011.
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