'Surfing for Jimmy Choo' - the web goes upmarket

Earlier this year, I noted my amusement with the ultra-upscale purveyors of things luxurious and their disdain for the web as a sales avenue.

Only a matter of time until they weaken and crumble, said I.

It's happening as you read this.

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal story by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan and Sally Beatty reports on how Burberry, Prada, and their ilk are suddenly getting that ol' online religion.

I say again: get on the internet train, or be left behind at the station.

I took a look at some of the high-end brand websites just now, and was appalled at what I found.

They are clueless about what the internet buyer wants.

They uniformly employ Flash, and start you off on the wrong foot right from the get-go.

Ah, well.

They'll catch on eventually, after they flush enough money in lost sales down their Flash toilets.

Here's the article.
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Surfing for Jimmy Choo: Luxury Hits the Web

High-End Retailers Move Online After Early Reluctance; How Barneys Stacks Up

With the lucrative Christmas shopping season just around the corner, a number of luxury retailers are belatedly launching sites in order to sell their $1,000 handbags and $500 shoes on the Web.

To date, the fashion flock has been slow to go online, either shunning the Web altogether or letting people look but not buy.

But this fall, a number of stores and designers are reversing course.

Bergdorf Goodman ventured into online shopping in August with an extensive site featuring items like $630 Manolo Blahnik chain-mesh stilettos and a $2,575 Narciso Rodriguez satin cocktail dress.

On Nov. 15, Salvatore Ferragamo SpA will begin allowing visitors to its Web site to buy clothing, shoes, handbags and other accessories by clicking on a shopping icon.

Burberry Ltd. added shopping to its site October 1.

And Barneys New York Inc. last month revamped its site (www.barneys.com) to add user-friendly features such as a designer-brand search option, though their selection remains limited.

Even high-end boutiques are jumping in.

Intermix, the New York-based chain that carries names from Givenchy to Stella McCartney, officially launches online shopping next month at www.intermixonline.com.

And Scoop, a New York purveyor of Jimmy Choo shoes and Marc Jacobs apparel, is retooling its site (www.scoopnyc.com) in time for the holiday-season.

It will include a designer search and index and expanded shipping options.

A few retailers, including Neiman Marcus Group Inc., which had an extensive catalog operation, have been building strong Web presences for several years.

But many other luxury retailers initially held back from selling online, on the grounds that their high-end customers weren't ready to make pricey purchases sight unseen.

Some stores also saw online sales as "putting yourself in the same playing field as Wal-Mart," said Marshal Cohen, chief analyst for the NPD Group.

Other high-end stores and designers resisted doing online sales until they felt ready to handle the increased volume and pull off logistical tasks such as filling customer orders in a timely fashion and responding to e-mail and phone requests for help in ordering online, among other things.

Ferragamo opted to team up with Neiman, rather than go it alone, in order to speed its entry online.

Now, however, luxury retailers have decided they must establish a presence on the Web.

According to a study by Shop.org and Forrester Research, online apparel sales are expected to grow 42% this year to $11.7 billion.

In jewelry and luxury goods, the study predicts a 39% increase in sales this year to $2.8 billion.

Despite the luxurious offerings, shoppers accustomed to the ease and broad selection of an Amazon.com will find that the new sites have some significant drawbacks: limited selection in some cases, packaging and mailing problems in others.

San Francisco attorney Tiffany Schauer continues to be frustrated that her favorite high-end store, Barneys New York, offers only some of its merchandise on its Web site.

Just yesterday, she went searching for baby gifts on Barneys.com and Burberry.com but was disappointed with the few items she found on both sites.

"When you go to the store, they have racks and racks of it," she says.

"But they're not giving you what's available in the store online."

She increasingly turns to sites such as eBay, saying she doesn't have a lot of time to shop.

"Very few people have time to spend in a store looking and touching and feeling - we have to work," she says.

Next month, Burberry plans to add a broader array of apparel and accessories, plus more men's offerings.

Barneys New York executive vice president of marketing Karl Hermanns says the store's current emphasis is on opening more bricks-and-mortar stores.

The desire to focus on improving the store experience has been a factor for other retailers as well.

Prada, Marc Jacobs and Dolce & Gabbana still don't allow shoppers to buy from their Web sites.

A spokesman for Prada says the company is working on a "cutting edge" Web site to be launched "in the near future."

But a recent experiment by Vogue magazine showed the Web's potential to reach big-spending customers.

In September, the magazine launched a site - www.shopseptembervogue.com - that allowed people to click on and purchase items in ads.

During the first two weeks, according to Vogue Vice President and Publisher Tom Florio, 24 people bought a $1,570 leopard-print Dior bag, 22 readers purchased a $3,135 Chloe silk chiffon gown and 26 bought a $3,950, 18-kt gold Tiffany bangle.

An additional reason retailers and designers are ramping up their Web endeavors is that they are hoping to win younger customers before their Internet buying habits are established.

At Bergdorf Goodman, Michael Crotty, senior vice president of marketing, says the store wanted to make sure its Web site wouldn't be disappointing to customers familiar with its brand: "I remember a couple of years ago when stores would launch sites and there would be very little there."

Now, he adds, the store has to be online. "We have a very traditional customer, but we also have her daughter shopping with us."

While Bergdorf is new to the Web, parent company Neiman Marcus, which is handling its online sales, is well-versed in the arena.

Sales at all three of its Web sites, including Neimanmarcus.com, Chefscatalog.com and Horchow.com, topped $240 million for the twelve months ending in July, an increase of more than 50% over the same period a year ago, said Brendan Hoffmann, chief executive of Neiman Marcus Direct.

"Over half our business on Neimanmarcus.com comes from places we don't have a store in," said Mr. Hoffmann.

He says Bergdorf Goodman logged purchases from 46 states in the first month after Bergdorf began selling online.

For shoppers, the improved sites mean they can buy a larger variety of fashionable merchandise without having to visit major cities.

Also, by going online, luxury retailers are opening the door to shoppers who are younger or not as affluent, and who may feel intimidated about setting foot in their stores.

"It gives you an opportunity to browse around without feeling like, 'People are looking at me, they think I can't afford anything. They don't think I should be here,'" says Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org, the National Retail Federation's online division.

In order to reach shoppers who may not be familiar with their New York-based brands, Bergdorf and Intermix are advertising their new Web sites in shopping magazines like Lucky or newspapers in cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago.

The new e-tailers also are banking on selling points such as a reputation as arbiters of New York fashion.

Bergdorf, for example, is emphasizing its carefully edited selections of clothing displayed in head-to-toe ensembles, said Robert Burke, senior fashion director for Bergdorf Goodman.

And some retailers are carefully watching their Internet sales for indications on where to open new stores.

Khajak Keledjian, chief executive officer of Intermix, says he plans to open four new stores nationally next year and will be monitoring Web-site sales to figure out where the next ones will go.