Digging for Data; Spin Doctor
One of the most impressive success stories when it comes to online apparel sales is J.Crew. The clothing giant, which operates 140 retail and factory-outlet stores and does substantial catalog sales, saw its Jcrew.com Web site increase revenues in the first half of fiscal year 2001 to $46.3 million from $36.9 million over the corresponding period the previous year.
It’s not just happenstance that Web site revenue is surging (and it appears to be at the expense of catalog sales). Behind the scenes is a Kirkland, Wash.-based company called DigiMine, which created and operates a secure, private “data warehouse” for J.Crew. DigiMine’s hosted services and proprietary software are designed to help businesses gain insight into online customer behavior and habits by uncovering meaningful patterns. The results of this “predictive data-mining technology” direct Web shoppers visiting Jcrew.com to other clothing, shoe or accessory recommendations.
J.Crew receives daily Web-based reports about customer interests and demographics, product sales and buying trends, and marketing-campaign responses, all of which go well beyond basic Web-traffic measurement. By integrating these multiple data sources into a comprehensive view, it is then able to make sophisticated marketing decisions.
The result is that Web shoppers visiting Jcrew.com receive personal attention, which increases customer satisfaction and loyalty and ideally leads to more and larger orders, according to DigiMine.
Based on its success with J.Crew, DigiMine has established a similar relationship with Seattle-based Nordstrom’s online arm, Nordstrom.com, to deliver its integrated analysis of click-stream, product catalog, promotion and transaction information.
Site/Product Review: Better Product Presentation
Apparel and accessory designers can now add interactive fashion shows to their Web sites thanks to Playa del Rey, Calif.-based 1st In Media Productions [www.1stinmedia.com/apparel]. “Interactive” means Web site visitors have the power to spin, pan and zoom in on the images, controlling them with nothing more than a mouse and standard Web browser.
1st In Media conducted an informal survey at the California Mart and New Mart during the recent Los Angeles market week. “We found that many designers do not consider the Internet as an important factor in apparel marketing,” reports Don Goss, director of Interactive Fashion Shows for the company. “Many designers don’t know or realize that apparel sales are the second largest online market.”
Indeed. In September 2001, the apparel industry had $494 million in online sales, representing a 79 percent growth over the prior year. Notes Goss, “Whether a designer is pursuing e-commerce or just branding [a] label, they have a very inexpensive and time-saving way to present their collection and close sales with industry buyers that missed market week.”
According to Goss, the company’s online interactive fashion shows are nothing like online video, which may require special user software and long downloads of separate files. The company claims they’re 300 percent to 500 percent bigger, sharper, clearer and faster—in our book, a much more compelling presentation for selling.
The demo site [www.1stinmedia.com] dramatically drives this point home with a model draped in a sheer dress doing a full, very lifelike 360-degree turn that the user can stop, enlarge and move at will. This is a trip worth taking.
