E-TAIL LAUNCH
Filene's Shifts from Bricks to Clicks
Filene’s is back. And this time, it’s virtual.
Discount retailer Filene’s Basement shuttered is doors in 2011, but the retailer (now under new management) is relaunching as an online-only site offering branded and designer men’s, women’s and children’s apparel, accessories, shoes, beauty, bridal and home goods at up to 70 percent off.
“Filene's Basement has a storied history and so many of its loyal customers who grew up shopping at 'The Basement' feel a deep personal attachment to the brand,” said Matt Messinger, president and chief executive officer of Trinity Place Holdings Inc., the real estate holding, investment and asset management company that owns the Filene’s Basement trademark. "We’ve taken our time to carefully research the online retail space, and communicate with our former faithful customers and soon to be new shoppers about their desired experience with our brand. We believe the result will be the natural online evolution of that classic, one-of-a-kind Filene’s Basement shopping experience.”
The new FilenesBasement.com will offer a few changes over the previous bricks-and-mortar model. The site promises to “learn shopper style preferences” and then present merchandise tailored to his or her personal preferences. The site will have several personalization tools to help it learn more about each shopper. When first visiting the site, shoppers will be asked to fill out a Style Survey. Shoppers can set up a customized homepage called “My Style Feed” which will allow them to filter their merchandise preferences by brand, gender, price and product category. The site will email customers about new products based on their preferences and will make recommendations. “My Basement” is a private wish list that will help shoppers save favorite items or put together an outfit. “Style Stories” will profile FilenesBasement.com shoppers and style influencers.
“Our goal is to empower shoppers to simply and confidentially find ways to uniquely express their own style," said Mara Wedeck, chief merchandising officer of FilenesBasement.com. “With access to hundreds of thousands of designer products, we hope FilenesBasement.com will help everyone ‘find what’s you’ in their own unique way.”
