California Apparel News

Total online Holiday spending, measured from Nov. 1 to Dec. 19, 2003, reached $15.8 billion—up 37 percent over last year, according to the “eSpending Report” compiled by Goldman Sachs, Harris Interactive and Nielsen/NetRatings.

Apparel led the way in online purchases and was second in growth among all retail segments. Online apparel sales rose 40 percent to $3.1 billion, following the sales of videos and DVDs, which rose 58 percent to $1.4 billion. These numbers greatly exceeded the 17 percent overall annual sales growth expected for online purchases, according to Jupiter Research.

Most experts agreed that soaring online sales were the result of online retailers doing a better job of presenting their wares and delivering them on time.

“Retailers have done a very good job of making the experience a positive one,” said Lori Iventosch-James, director of e-commerce research at Harris Interactive. “They’ve removed as many of the barriers as possible—offering free shipping is one—and they’ve gotten much smarter about reducing serious errors.”

The maturation of Internet users appears to be the No. 2 reason online sales soared, according to Iventosch-James. “People are more readily willing to move into online purchasing, [which] is a strong reason why sales jumped,” she said.

For Iventosch-James, the most interesting finding was the significant boost in apparel’s online sales. “Clothing isn’t your typical online purchase and usually doesn’t lend itself as well as other goods to online shopping,” she said.

She attributed the unexpected rise in sales to “strong advertising, especially by major retailers like the Gap, Lands’ End and Old Navy.”

Continued integration of retailers’ bricks-and-mortar stores with their online sites is yet another reason why e-sales jumped, she added.

“Consumers are looking for an integrated experience and the strength of a brand,” she said. “Today, the consumer doesn’t feel like the two are separate entities. That’s a major change from the dot-com days, when companies split off their online and, in some cases, competed with them.”

Some sites, though, were ill-prepared for the season’s surprising traffic surge. Traffic jams contributed to slow page loads, and overburdened Web servers resulted in incomplete transactions. And sold-out items were a modest black mark on an otherwise smootherthan- ever online Holiday season.

Amazon.com, however, was prepared. The company reported that more than 99 percent of its orders arrived in time for the holidays. Amazon shipped more than 1 million packages on a single day, and its visitor rates topped 10,000 per minute at one point—an impressive record breaker.

Search engines also played an important part in the online Holiday e-tailing boom. According to a survey by Search Engine Specialist (www.searchenginespecialist.com), 37 percent of people said they used Google to search for items and 25 percent said they used Yahoo! Another 27 percent said they used eBay to help make their purchasing decisions.

Site Review: A Gold-en Experience

Los Angeles designer Jared Gold’s new online labyrinth, www.jaredgold.com, will appeal to anyone with a sense of fun and adventure. It’s whimsical, mysterious and full of surprises, featuring Monty Python–esque animation and very clever (and sometimes spooky) sound clips. A cool smattering of tiny video clips from recent runway shows and clips from episodes of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (featuring Gold’s garments on cast members) make for a great multimedia experience.

Navigating through the site does confound and confuse at times. Just go with it. An element of randomness seems to be at work here, which only adds to the charm of this most unusual cyberspace place. Some pages came up with browser errors or missing images on our computers, but given the overall complexity of the undertaking, these flaws were forgivable. This site’s a noteworthy diamond in the rough that will hopefully continue to evolve.

The site is also remarkable in its ability to “soft sell” the designer and his merchandise—though it’s not much of a product site at all. But you are left with an overall sense of the designer’s vision, aesthetics and fresh take on these notreally- so-modern times.

It’s not quantifiable, just a unique Web experience. And that’s a very rare achievement on today’s crassly commercial Web.