Holiday Online: Short Shopping Season Boosts Web Sales

Despite weak spending overall this holiday season, the brightest spot for retailers was online sales. They topped $74 billion, with apparel and consumer electronics leading the growth segments and exceeded nearly all market researchers’ predictions by the time 2002 ended. Apparel represented 17.5 percent of those dollars, representing a 20 percent growth rate over the previous year’s holiday season.

Consumer trust in shopping online, free shipping incentives, plus the convenience and efficiency of the experience were undoubtedly factors driving the surge.

Web traffic analysts at comScore/Media Metrix offered more clues in a recent “eCommerceTimes” survey that revealed 64 percent of consumers cited saving time as their primary motivation for shopping online, while 61 percent mentioned that comparison shopping for bargain pricing was a particularly appealing feature. The short holiday season was another force that inspired shoppers to rapidly accomplish their gift needs online.

According to Cambridge, Mass.–based Giga Information Group, apparel was cited as “the most notable” area of growth due, in part, to Web software innovations like garment-sizing technologies and virtual 3-D modeling that have been incorporated into the sites of L.L. Bean, Lands’ End and J. Crew, among others.

Alloy acquires Old Glory

Alloy, Inc., the successful media, direct-marketing and marketing-services company targeting the powerful Generation Y population primarily through its popular fashion-and-lifestyle-oriented Web site (alloy.com), has acquired Old Glory Boutique Distributing, Inc. Launched in 1993, Old Glory is a major direct marketer of musicand entertainment-related lifestyle products, including apparel, accessories and collectibles through direct- mail catalogs and the Internet. Alloy paid approximately $9.6 million in cash for the acquisition.

Alloy chairman and chief executive officer Matt Diamond, who made the company a major dotcom moneymaker during the darkest days of the dot-com shakedown, stated, “Old Glory is a recognized direct marketer ofhellip;vibrant product categories with great appeal to our Generation Y audience. We plan to fully integrate Old Glory’s operations with our direct-marketing infrastructurehellip;.In addition to expanding our youth-focused direct marketing franchise, we expect the acquisition of Old Glory to increase our fiscal 2003 merchandise revenues by $8 million to $10 million.”

Site review: Your personal shopper

Shopping DNA (www.shoppingdna.com), a new Internet personal-shopping service based out of the New York area, premiered just in time for the 2002 holiday season.

Shopping DNA promises, “We’ll take the burden of shopping so you can appreciate the delight of giving—and keeping!” The service boasts, “People use the expertise of lawyers, doctors, home decorators and caterers, so why not put your shopping needs in the hands of the shopping experts?”

This new Web site service offers an array of amenities, including “thoughtful and unique gift-giving ideas specially tailored to your recipient; individualized fashion consultation; suggestions for home accessories; corporate gift-buying plans; business and personal shopping for any occasion; as well as gift baskets, floral arrangements, gourmet delicacies and gift suggestions from the finest retailers worldwide.”

Clients need only provide information about what they need along with spending guidelines and Shopping DNA does the rest. The client is alerted via e-mail or phone when the perfect gift or desired item has been located. Shopping DNA promises to not only select the appropriate item, but also arrange for shipping and gift wrapping if desired. The service also features personal wardrobe makeovers.

The staff at Shopping DNA claims to have access to sources for hard-to-find items, oneof- a-kind gifts, objets d’art and quality namebrand merchandise from Tiffany’s, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman.

But, the site lacks images of sample products and asks the user for a sizable investment of faith in the site’s shopping team.

One shopper confides, “Using Shopping DNA is like having a fairy godmother to satisfy your every shopping need in a convenient, secure and confidential fashion.” It’s a great idea, but testimonials alone will not adequately motivate the scrutiny of a demanding consumer. Until the site grows beyond its text-only wordiness and flavors its pages with some tangible product imagery, sales are likely to be slow in this corner of cyberspace.