LAShowroom Site Breaks the Mold; Paul Fredrick Gets a Face-lift

In the early, explosive days of the Internet, it seemed that the new medium was poised to implode traditional bricks-and-mortar stores, showrooms and trade shows, which would give way to “virtual” spaces in the vast, hyper-realistic cyber-market of the future.

Wrong. They are still here—and for good reason.

While the most successful bricks-and-mortar stores have a strong online presence, the largest market centers and trade shows have failed to make “virtuality” a reality. They have put up a good effort with attractive and easily navigable sites, but nobody has embraced them.

That hasn’t stopped LAShowroom from taking a gamble on a new site, www.lashowroom.com. The site, produced from the company’s modest headquarters in the Mid-Wilshire district of Los Angeles, promises “to bring the Internet revolution to the garment industry and create the ultimate apparel marketplace, where buyers and sellers can connect and experience the convenience of online business.”

While it is unlikely to be a threat to the conventional marketplace, as some of those big B2B strategic alliances heralded a few years ago, the site offers what the Internet does best—it makes business a little easier, faster and more convenient.

With a healthy and growing number of virtual showrooms represented in a list of clearly defined clothing categories, the site showcases merchandise from a nice collection of forward-thinking manufacturers and designers.

Sign-up is free and only requires verification that potential users are qualified buyers and garment resellers. After completing the sign-in process, users can take a fresh tour of some very cool clothes.

Users must gain permission from vendors, who are privy to buyers’ profiles, before entering collections. Once in, however, buyers have access to prices, detailed images and a shopping cart. The integrity of the site as a completely professional wholesale environment is thus assured.

The site sends buyers e-mails confirming interests or orders within a day or two. In addition, when new vendors open showrooms, the site e-mails buyers personal invitations to access the collections, which include images.

LAShowroom’s site looks and functions better than most other attempts we’ve seen to create an online showroom portal. With 28 showrooms online so far, this impressive site could serve the needs of many apparel buyers restricted by budget or travel constraints. In addition, savvy vendors could tap into a whole new retail audience.

A stylish relaunch

The Paul Fredrick Menstyle site, www.paulfredrick.com, got a major face-lift for its relaunch last month.

The new site offers much smoother navigation than the old site, as well as a variety of features aimed at keeping and building a solid consumer audience for the catalog-direct merchandiser, which reportedly mails out more than 10 million catalogs annually. Having hatched from the long-established Fleetwood Shirt Company in 1986, it feels like a pleasant shopping experience rather than a simple online catalog.

Special offers, which change weekly, dominate the homepage, and a very active clearance center teases visitors by promising savings of up to 75 percent.

Fashion counseling is another well-developed new area with a weekly “Business Dressing” article, an “Ask the Designer” email system and a growing posting of designers’ replies to visitors’ questions. Registered users have the option of receiving emails about specific topics and product categories relating to their interests.

The remodeled site takes full advantage of the company’s greatest marketing asset: high-quality product images drawn from its mail-order catalog. A “Fast Find” feature allows catalog recipients to type in an item number and see the product in detail greater than that offered by the printed page.

An aggressive online marketing program, hosted by the LinkShare affiliate network, finds Paul Fredrick banners displayed on and hyperlinked from sites all over the Internet. The banners offer affiliated Web sites up to 15 percent of “click-thru”–originated sales.