American Eagle Outfitters Political Factors

American Eagle Outfitters opened its first location in Michigan in 1977. It was started by the Silverman family but bought over by the Schottenstein family when the Silverman’s Retail Venture began to struggle financially (American Eagle Outfitters, Inc., 2014, Auspicious Debut: Seventies and Eighties). At the time, the company offered more outdoorsy apparel and marketed itself more towards men, though it still competed with GAP and other such competitors. The company continued to grow during this time. According to the International Directory of Company Histories, in 1989, the Silvermans almost sold the company to GAP but the deal fell through, and the company geared to expand significantly (American Eagle Outfitters, Inc., 2014). In 1996,

These factors must be assessed when considering different markets to conduct business in or invest in. For example, American Eagle Outfitters should analyze factors for each region such as political stability, the importance of Apparel Store sectors in the economy, level of corruption, if there is a risk of military invasion, legal frameworks, IP protection, taxation, mandatory employee regulations and benefits, product labeling and regulations for selling clothing, trade regulations and tariffs related to services, and more. Political disruptions such as the US-China trade war in 2018 led to raised tariffs on imports from China, and China retaliated by imposing tariffs on US imports (Gorman, 2022). These kinds of conflicts due to political issues affect the company’s ability to import and export goods and

Businesses in the Apparel industry should analyze how these technological disruptions affect them as well as the rate at which they are going. Some of the factors that American Eagle Outfitters must understand are the company’s own technological developments, technology’s impact on their product offerings, the rate of how quickly innovations are adopted, and recent technological developments by competitors. Especially after COVID-19, many retail stores have transitioned to having more of an online presence. Studies show that after the pandemic, “payment options have become flexible, because 78% of consumers have shifted to online shopping post-pandemic, with 90 percent of brands claiming that they earn more by offering flexible payment alternatives that accelerate decision-making” (Baliyan & Diwan,