Shoe Carnival, Inc. SCVL

Competitive advantage analysis · consumer-cyclical

Corporate Default
Overall moat score
58/100
Moderate

About Shoe Carnival, Inc.

Shoe Carnival, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a family footwear retailer in the United States. The company offers various products, including dress and casual shoes, sandals, boots, and athletic shoes; and non-athletics for men's, women's and children's shoes, as well as accessories. It also operates stores. The company sells its products through www.shoecarnival.com and www.shoestation.com, as well as … Full SCVL analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • Strong Interest Coverage & Conservative Leverage Debt serviceability is strong (score 0.84), with robust interest coverage.
  • Strong Liquidity Buffer Liquidity position is strong (score 1.00), providing operational cushion.

Key risks

  • Commodity Pressure / Weak Differentiation Gross margin at 39.4th percentile with high volatility suggests weak pricing power or commoditized products.

The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.

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Pricing Power

Moderate
50

Where SCVL ranks in Apparel Retail

Shoe Carnival, Inc. ranks #13 of 34 scored companies in Apparel Retail by moat score — the top 38%. The widest moat in the group is lululemon athletica inc. (LULU) at 83/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near SCVL in Apparel Retail
# Company Moat score Rating
9 Burlington Stores, Inc. BURL 65/100 Moderate
10 J. Jill, Inc. JILL 63/100 Moderate
11 American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. AEO 60/100 Moderate
12 Carter's, Inc. CRI 59/100 Moderate
13 Shoe Carnival, Inc. SCVL 58/100 Moderate
14 BrilliA Inc - Class A BRIA 58/100 Moderate
15 Guess?, Inc. GES 57/100 Moderate
16 Genesco Inc. GCO 52/100 Moderate
17 Victorias Secret & Co. VSCO 52/100 Moderate

See every General Corporate company ranked by moat score →

How SCVL scores on the Corporate Default defenses

Pricing Power

Score 50 · 20% of the moat score

Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.

Cost Advantage

Score 71 · 15% of the moat score

A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.

Customer Stickiness

Score 54 · 15% of the moat score

Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.

Capital Efficiency

Score 51 · 18% of the moat score

Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.

Resilience

Score 84 · 17% of the moat score

Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.

Scale & Market Position

Score 42 · 15% of the moat score

Scale matters only when it converts into economics.

How each Corporate Default defense is measured, in full →

Understanding SCVL's moat

What is Shoe Carnival, Inc.'s moat score?

Shoe Carnival, Inc. (SCVL) scores 58 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #13 of 34 scored companies in Apparel Retail, the top 38%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 33 companies in Apparel Retail. Its strongest defense is Resilience (84/100) and its weakest is Scale & Market Position (42/100).

How does Shoe Carnival, Inc. compare with other Apparel Retail companies?

Shoe Carnival, Inc. ranks #13 of 34 scored companies in Apparel Retail by moat score. The widest moat in Apparel Retail is lululemon athletica inc. (LULU) at 83/100. The companies ranked closest are Carter's, Inc. (CRI) at 59 just above it and BrilliA Inc - Class A (BRIA) at 58 just below it.

How is the moat score calculated?

Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 33 companies in Apparel Retail. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is Shoe Carnival, Inc. scored with the Corporate Default template?

Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.

Which competitive defenses are measured for Shoe Carnival, Inc.?

The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and SCVL scores: Pricing Power (50), Cost Advantage (71), Customer Stickiness (54), Capital Efficiency (51), Resilience (84), Scale & Market Position (42). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.

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