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  • ddohnggo
    Senior Member
    • Oct 2006
    • 4477

    NY TIMES: Fashion and E-Commerce



    interesting article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/technology/05ecom.html?ref=technology



    ANGELENOS have Rodeo Drive. New Yorkers have Fifth Avenue.
    Chicagoans have the Magnificent Mile. For many other high-fashion
    shoppers, the nearest destination is the Web.





    Retailers
    and brands are increasingly relying on the Internet to market $3,000
    skirts and $5,000 suits to consumers who think nothing of spending that
    much on clothing. The trend represents another byproduct of high-speed
    Internet connections, but it also speaks to the growing belief among
    luxury retailers and designers that a two-dimensional Web store will
    not diminish their marquee status.



    ?We?ve begun to see that the
    e-commerce shopper is indeed someone who has really quite a level of
    sophistication, and is older than was once imagined,? said Robert
    Triefus, an executive vice president with Armani Group. ?For fashion,
    that type of consumer is very fundamental.?



    Armani had been selling a small fraction of its collections through online retailers until September, when it introduced EmporioArmani.com, which sells the entire Emporio collection, one of Armani?s six major brands.




    Among other things, Mr. Triefus said, the site opens the brand to
    consumers who are not near the company?s stores. ?In a market like
    America where we?ve historically only had 10 freestanding stores, this
    suddenly makes accessible one of our most important collections in a
    very broad way,? he said. ?One imagines the virtual store will
    progressively rise up the charts.?



    The Web site may not become
    the top-selling store, but given the experiences of other fashion
    brands, it could get close. The online stores of Saks and Armani
    Exchange, the company?s casual clothing line, sell more goods than all
    but the top store in their chains.



    According to Brendan Hoffman,
    president of Neiman Marcus Direct, the company?s catalog and online
    division, luxury apparel ?has been exploding over the past 18 months,
    really at the upper end of the price points.?



    Basic garments sell comparatively slowly, Mr. Hoffman said, but items like $7,900 Valentino gowns, $5,500 Carolina Herrera jackets and other items ?with more camera appeal? sell quickly.




    ?We?ve yet to see any limits to what they?re willing to pay,? he said.
    Two factors are behind the recent growth, Mr. Hoffman said.



    First,
    many more customers have high-speed Internet connections, allowing them
    to click more freely through multiple pictures of an item and zoom in
    on shots of fabrics and colors. Mr. Hoffman noted that until 18 months
    ago, most of his business came during working hours on weekdays. Now
    much of it comes ?on weekends and after 8 p.m., once the kids are in
    bed,? he said.



    ?



    Designers, meanwhile, have given shoppers
    more reason to move online, Mr. Hoffman said. After watching Neiman
    Marcus and other luxury online retailers ? like Net-a-Porter.com, Yoox.com, Saks.com
    ? for years sell expensive shoes, bags and other accessories, designers
    like Armani, Zagliani and Marni have pushed more of their collections
    onto the Web.



    The recent surge in luxury apparel sales brings
    sweet vindication to online-only retailers who endured the fallow
    years, like Net-a-Porter and Yoox. The two sites made their debut in
    2000, around the same time as the humiliating demise of Boo.com, an
    online retailer based in London. Boo.com in late 1999 built a site
    heavy on animation and slick photography, but that proved useless for
    those with dial-up Internet connections.



    By contrast,
    Net-a-Porter aimed at more basic customer needs, like fast delivery and
    fast-loading photos, said Natalie Massenet, the company?s founder.



    ?We
    wanted to put the clothing and images on show, but we didn?t have
    money, so we had to do things simplistically,? she said. ?We continue
    to do things in a very streamlined way. Customers like that.?



    Ms.
    Massenet found other ways to improve the shopping experience.
    Net-a-Porter?s early management team, which included fashion magazine
    veterans, developed weekly editorial spreads featuring the site?s
    merchandise.



    The site?s packaging, meanwhile, carries more than a
    whiff of cachet; shoes come inside noncollapsible boxes tied with
    brocade ribbon, which are then wrapped in tissue and placed inside
    cloth bags and placed inside another box tied with ribbons. The company
    is considering ways to cut the cost of the packaging, she said.



    ?But
    we always say it?s what makes it so exciting to shop on Net-a-Porter,?
    Ms. Massenet said. Sales at the privately held company will jump by
    more than 85 percent this year, Ms. Massenet said, with profits rising
    as well.



    Over all, luxury apparel sales will approach $1 billion this year, according to Forrester Research,
    a technology consulting firm. E-commerce is expected to grow by 21
    percent compared with last year, and growth in luxury apparel sales is
    expected to exceed that, Forrester said.



    Sales for
    Net-a-Porter?s chief competitor, Yoox.com, which is based in Italy, are
    also increasing rapidly, but the site has recently added a new
    dimension: creating e-commerce sites for designers who want to sell
    directly to consumers. Yoox this year developed online stores for
    Marni, a women?s designer, as well as Armani?s Emporio site, with 10
    designers still to follow over the next 18 months.



    ?



    Federico
    Marchetti, Yoox?s chief executive, said the decision to build online
    stores for designers was easy. ?We already put together so many things
    ? logistics systems, technology, customer care, warehouses, 20 studios
    to make pictures with 25 photographers; why not give this platform to
    the brands to do their own mono-brand flagship store??



    Mr.
    Marchetti said the business had about $70 million in revenue in 2005,
    and sales have increased annually by at least 40 percent since then. It
    has been profitable since 2005, he said.



    Given the sales growth,
    it is perhaps no surprise that Web sites are investing more heavily in
    technologies that could give them a competitive edge. Take Saks Fifth
    Avenue, for example. In September, the company unveiled a revamped Web
    site, simplifying its layouts and adding features meant to showcase
    popular designers with video fashion shows and interviews, among other
    things.



    Denise Incandela, president of Saks Direct, said visitors
    to the new site buy at a slightly increased rate, compared with the
    older version. ?This medium is a fabulous way to communicate even more
    information than we can in the stores,? Ms. Incandela said.



    ?This is almost what you heard people talking about in 2000, but only now is the technology catching up with our ideas.?



    Did you get and like the larger dick?
  • Faust
    kitsch killer
    • Sep 2006
    • 37852

    #2
    Re: NY TIMES: Fashion and E-Commerce

    This is a NYT article? Hard to believe. Yoox is a direct competitor to NAP? Marni is a women's designer? Wow. Maybe it's time to apply for a fact-checker position at NYT?
    Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

    StyleZeitgeist Magazine

    Comment

    • RARA
      Junior Member
      • Oct 2007
      • 21

      #3
      Re: NY TIMES: Fashion and E-Commerce



      I agree: Those NYT guys probably need a fact-checker...Marni is doing men and also selling on-line the men's collection.




      E-commerce is still poor in my country, Spain.Most peoplestill like to go shopping as a social activity.Friends even get together just for that but I believe e-commerce is growing and our government is now giving assistance + subsidies to those companies who want to get into.




      For instead, a friend of mine is crazy about Yamamoto. He always asks my cousin who goes often to Japan to get things from him. Whenever he travels to a big city, he gets something but avoid shopping in Madrid because the only shop selling Yamamoto'scollections are extremely expensive. He does not trust shopping on-line and most of the people I know that spend lot of money on clothes still distrust e-commerce.




      I am probably too conservative and still love to shop myself, try the pieces on, feel the materials, speak with the sellers and enjoy the whole experience. E-commerce seems to be too cold though you save time and time is also a luxury on our nowadays.




      It could be also a cultural different, US citizen are used to by on TV, by phone so e-commerce is not new but another option. Spanish people are a bit delayed and all this stuff is newer.




      Have some of you bought on-line garments or any fashion item?





      Comment

      • Faust
        kitsch killer
        • Sep 2006
        • 37852

        #4
        Re: NY TIMES: Fashion and E-Commerce



        I think the US will always be at the forefront of consumerism. This is the culture here, it's much more individualistic (not in a good sense) then more community oriented culture in Europe (and the rest of the world for that matter). Americans are also much more trustful, which contributed to the success of Ebay and such (where else could you start a business that operates remotely?).



        Besides, the Web enables the people on the periphery to access the same things that traditionally only people in the big cities had access to. Don't forget the same people always got those fashion magazines. And they have money, so now they can buy on line what they see in the magazines or what they see as trendy on the Internet. There is one girl on the fashion spot - she is like 16 and she lives in Ohio, but she keeps buying all this stuff (Rick Owens jackets, Balenciaga tops) which I am sure she has nowhere to wear. Boredom + money = Internet luxury retailing.



        For me the bright side of retailing is having access to stuff I've seen and handled that is no longer available locally. That's a real boon.

        Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

        StyleZeitgeist Magazine

        Comment

        • Fuuma
          Senior Member
          • Sep 2006
          • 4050

          #5
          Re: NY TIMES: Fashion and E-Commerce



          E-commerce is the new Sears catalog, at least in the US...

          Selling CCP, Harnden, Raf, Rick etc.
          http://www.stylezeitgeist.com/forums...me-other-stuff

          Comment

          • Haute Concept
            Junior Member
            • Dec 2007
            • 2

            #6
            Re: NY TIMES: Fashion and E-Commerce



            Faust, I agree with you that e-commerce is a boon for people without access to the big cities.



            Also, Faust is correct in his assessment of the US market. An article from the IHT(http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/...s/clothing.php) said:



            "?For the first time since online retailing was born about a decade ago,
            sales of clothing in the United States have overtaken those of computer
            hardware and software?revenue from online sales of clothes reached
            $18.3 billion in the United States, surpassing online revenue from
            personal computers, printers and word-processing programs, which
            totaled $17.2 billion.?



            Also, Federated Department Stores, the parent company of Macy's, is striving to make it?s e-commerce site the ?biggest moneymaker? for the company, surpassing it's Herald Square flagship.



            There is an obvious market for e-commerce and people are ready and willing to buy. It may not yet be a significant percentage of a companies sales, but the figures are growing every year. And I will not be surprised if one day e-commerce becomes a force to be reckoned with.



            I also commented on this issue on my blog.

            "This is not shocking to us but great news to hear
            nonetheless. We see the Internet and online buying as an inevitable
            progression to fit our current lifestyles. This will only continue as
            consumers awaken to the comfort and security provided by online
            shopping.


            Those retailers who fail to make this connection will
            be left behind scrambling for a way to connect to their consumer in the
            near future."

            http://hauteconcept.com/category/e-commerce/



            Comment

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