The Online Womens Clothing Industry

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The Online Womens Clothing Industry

• By Yucheng Hu,
• Yimin Jiang,
• Andrew Jones

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Major Players in Online Womens Clothing
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A Sample Front Page
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Basics

• Consumers Sign up online with clothing stores
• Can shop anytime anywhere that they have access
  to web interface
• Log in, select clothes, pay using a credit card,
  and arrange for shipment

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A Sample Signup Page
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A Sample Clothing Store
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Womens Clothing

• Who are the customers
• Victorias Secret and Esprit primarily target
  middle and upper class women. They also try to
  attract male customers who are purchasing gifts
  for women.
• Eddie Bauer, Gap, Lands End, and J.Crew sell
  both mens and womens clothing. So their
  customers come from both groups.
• These online clothing stores hope to take
  advantage of the customers they do not reach with
  their mall presence.

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Womens Clothing

• Gaps Philosophy is A simple formula drives our
  brands We strive to deliver style, service and
  value to everyonekindergartners and
  grandparents, students and professionals,
  athletes and philosophers, big-city urbanites and
  small-town folks. (Source http//www.gapinc.com/
  about_us/about_us.htm)

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Womens Clothing

• How do they attract customers
• Referrals (J.Crew, Lands End have affiliate
  programs)
• Word-of-mouth and advertising (all, e.g. Lands
  End offers Lands End Live, Shop with a Friend,
  Your Personal Model for Women, etc.)
• Eddie Bauer has a presence within Yahoo!
  (shopping to gain customers)
• Promoting online sites in stores and catalogs
  (all)
• Membership (e.g. Club Esprit), an easy one step
  process to order items from catalogs (all)

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Womens Clothing

• Value added
• The basic value proposition is helping customers
  to buy clothes easily
• Offer free registration and provide member
  discounts (Esprit, J.Crew and Banana Republic)
• Mail free product information to members (All)
• Provide members wish-lists to record their
  preferences and remind them (Eddie Bauer, Gap,
  Lands End and Esprit)
• Offer One-click service for easy checkout (All)

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Womens Clothing

• Additional value added
• User can check order and delivery status online
  (Victorias Secret)
• Refer customers to alliance partners (Banana
  Republic refers users to Gap)
• Create personalized 3-D model for individual
  customers using exact measurements (Lands End)

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Womens Clothing

• Additional value added
• Offer buyers related product information and
  purchase suggestions (Lands End)
• Establish affiliate programs with other web
  sites, random users get more opportunity to visit
  stores (J.Crew, Esprit and Lands End)
• Deliver products to multiple addresses for each
  order (Banana Republic)

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Womens Clothing

• Sample delivery prices
• Two-dimensional delivery options (time vs. order
  value)
• Eddie Bauer ( Orderdays-8.95, 2 days-14.95 order increase every
  30, add 2)
• Gap (every 50, add 2)
• Esprit (days- 15.95 increase every 25, add 1)

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Womens Clothing

• Try purchasing at the online stores
• Easy navigation within the site
• Rich additional information about products
  (J.Crew, Eddie Bauer provide clothing care tips)
• Frequent on-sale and promotions to get potential
  customers to try
• First time user introductory discounts (Banana
  Republic)
• Online jeans-design contest to attract users
  (Gap)
• Cumulative purchase discounts (Banana Republic)

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Womens Clothing

• Turning one-shot customers into repeat customers
• Creating incentives to attract current customers
• Holiday savings
• Email updates on clearance sales or special
  offers
• Customers are committing to an on-going
  relationship due to excellent customer service
• Satisfaction guaranteed (e.g. merchandise
  returnable within six months at Victorias
  Secret)
• Encouraging customers to make wish lists
• Customers will come back to follow up on the wish
  list