Why it matters:
- Carter’s, best-known for its Carter’s and OshKosh B’Gosh brands, is a leader in baby and kids’ apparel, with over $2.8 billion in annual sales, 1,000 stores in North America, and robust wholesale partnerships.
- By the end of next year, about two-thirds of its customer base will be Gen Z parents, and they demand style, value, ease, and convenience.
- Carter’s is reaching Gen Z moms in new ways, through social media, influencers, and fashion-focused events, including showcasing its styles during New York Fashion Week.
The Carter’s clothing company has been making baby and kids clothing for 160 years and has been a trusted brand for many generations of parents. Now, it’s adapting to meet the needs of the newest — and perhaps most challenging — generation: Gen Z.
The company expects that by the end of next year roughly two-thirds of its customer base will be Gen Zers.
That means Carter’s needs to be nimble enough to quickly respond to fashion trends and be able to connect with young moms where and how they like to shop while maintaining their brands’ long tradition of quality and value.
“The next gen consumer is changing so fast, and we have to move quickly with her,” Kendra Krugman, Senior Executive Vice President, Chief Creative and Growth Officer at Carter’s told CO—.
'For new moms, it used to be that her No. 1 resource for what to buy for baby was her mother or her grandmother,' Krugman said. 'Now it’s friends and influencers.'
The Gen Z customer is “unwavering in their expectations,” Krugman said. “They want ease and convenience, style and value are critical, and we have to hit the mark on both.”
“As we move forward, we are looking to change our operational processes to drive speed to market, lean into style even more than we have in the past, and make sure we’re hitting on offering exceptional value across all of our brands. That is our focus,” she said.
Carter’s trendy style push: Influencers and Fashion Week debut yield 6.6 million social media impressions
As part of the plan to lean into style, Carter’s showed off its latest collections at New York Fashion Week in February.
The company invited social influencers and members of the fashion press, along with their children, to an event space where the kids could try on Carter’s Spring styles, pose for selfies, and play in an adjacent playroom. That event generated 6.6 million social media impressions.
In addition to highlighting Carter’s on-trend fashions, the event showcased how “we make those trends very accessible, both in the ways we style the trends and we interpret them, but also with our price points as well as our distribution,” Krugman said.
[Read more: Trend Forecasters on the 6 Consumer Trends Set to Impact Business in 2025]
The Carter’s company was launched in 1865 by William Carter, who relocated to Massachusetts from England and began opening sewing mills there.
The company went public in 2003 and has grown through a combination of brand acquisitions — most notably the OshKosh B’Gosh children’s brand in 2005; store expansions; and wholesale partnerships to create exclusive branded Carter’s lines for mass merchants and department stores, including Target, Walmart, Macy’s, and Kohl’s.
In 2021 it launched its Little Planet brand of clothes made with organic fabrics and sustainable materials. Last year it launched the PurelySoft by Carter’s assortment, featuring a supersoft and stretchy fabric.
While Carter’s sells clothes ranging from infant up to size 14, the baby and toddler categories make up 80% of its apparel sales. Despite a steadily declining birth rate, Carter’s was able to grow its share of both the baby and the toddler markets in 2024, the company said.
Courting Gen Z parents: ‘One important strategy for us is we have to be the best gift at the [baby] shower.’
Carter’s reported in its most recent earnings report that its typical customers are moms with two young children, with $80,000-plus incomes, who typically shop for children’s clothing six or more times a year.
Just as babies and toddlers outgrow their clothes very quickly, Carter’s sees its customers turn over very quickly, as children age out of the brand.
“You have to change and evolve all the time because you’re constantly talking to a different consumer,” Krugman said.
One way Carter’s is connecting with the newest generation of moms is by forming partnerships and relationships with social media influencers.
“For new moms, it used to be that her No. 1 resource for what to buy for baby was her mother or her grandmother,” Krugman said. “Now it’s friends and influencers.”
[Read more: Businesses Large and Small Tap Multibillion-Dollar Retail Media Network Trend for Growth]
It also is important to create brand awareness in the minds of future parents, she said.
“I tell the team always — one important strategy for us is we have to be the best gift at the [baby] shower,” — where future moms will be celebrating the mom-to-be. “When babies are just a figment of somebody’s imagination is when you have to start creating little impressions of our brand.”
While Gen Z parents are becoming the primary buyer of Carter’s brands, the company also recognizes the importance of another key demographic – grandparents.
The company seeks to make sure they know they are valued, with efforts like its rewards programs, Krugman said.
But when it comes to fashion and styles, the grandparents — like Carter’s — are guided by what the Gen Z parents like.
“The grandparent wants to buy the thing that their children want the grandkids to wear,” Krugman said.
“You make mom and dad happy, and the grandparent’s happy because mom and dad are happy, and the baby looks cute,” she said.
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