Very attractive customers. Find a niche and serve it, is as good a mantra as any for staying on top of the retail business. Find a lucrative, underserve niche and serve it is even better. Retailers like Hot Topic and Pacific Sunwear that cater to the teen market have been enjoying strong sales while retailers like Ann Taylor and Gap geared to the considerably more crowded adult market have been suffering. CNN/Money explains why teens are such desirable customers:

Teens for the most part get an allowance, don't pay rent, mortgage, or insurance costs, and also don't pay for their food" so they tend to spend more freely than their parents at the mall.

Ah, but if only it were that easy. Naturally, the best performing teen-focused companies are also very good at getting the basics of retail right:

How do Hot Topic, Pacific Sunwear and Charlotte Russe, another chain, do it? They buy domestically, meaning they can get products faster and tap into fashion trends more quickly than competitors; speed that's key to being successful in this sector

Another allure of the Torrid concept stores is the way the merchandise is arranged thematically, which makes it easier and faster for shoppers to find the look that they want..."We set up our clothes in sections based on music genres, like punk or rock,"said Sylvia Niles, buyer for Torrid apparel. "Also, all our clothes hang facing the customers as they walk in. Our clothes don't hang sideways on racks because every item has a novelty factor and we want to emphasize that to the maximum."