E Commerce : An Opportunity For Fashion Retailers

According to MarketLine, the world online retail market expanded by almost 18% in 2010 and is predicted to reach close to $435 billion in sales. The market is expected to reach a 90% growth by 2015 and exceed $827 billion in sales. Listed in an article “Ecommerce Growth Statistics”, the average amount spent by each consumer is expected to rise from $1,207 per year to $1,738 per person by 2016. That is a significant increase. That shows that people prefer to shop online than going to the actual store in today’s society. Shoppers will spend on an average of $327 billion online shopping in 2016, which is about 45% from $226 billion in 2012. It is very evident that consumers will drive ecommerce into the future; especially e-retail. In just a few years, purchases online will be more profitable than ever, with others products and services available to purchase such as mobile and social allowing consumers to shop to their convenience. For retailers and

Online Grocery stores: Over the last two decades, rising internet and mobile phone penetration has changed the way we communicate and do business. E-commerce is relatively a novel concept. It is, at present, heavily leaning on the internet and mobile phone revolution to fundamentally alter the way businesses reach their

Being a multi-billion dollar retailer comes with its perks. JCPenney’s dominance over catalog merchandising has now extended into the cyber world at www.jcpenney.com. This website is multi-functional and easy to navigate, but how would JCPenney’s new e-commerce site stack up against its toughest competitor, Kohl’s, on the web? The answer may surprise you. This is an intriguing look at how varied retail comparisons can be. While JCPenney is struggling with sales on the retail floor, Kohl’s continues to exceed expectations in their stores. Online though, it is a completely different story.

Online commerce was introduced to consumers in the mid-1990’s, and in the years since, it has grown exponentially. It started out virtually nonexistent and has become a multi-billion dollar industry. Nearly every retail sector has entered online commerce; clothing, electronics, home, health and grooming items, even food and groceries are starting to gain traction online. Online commerce sites rival traditional brick and mortar stores such as Walmart and Target, as well as other big-box stores. As online retailers such as Amazon continue to expand, many brick and mortar stores have been making their way online, indicative of an increasing movement towards online commerce. With more than 80% of the online population having made an online

Specifically in the fashion industry, there is a trend moving more towards digital commerce rather than physical, brick and mortar retailing. Customers want convenience and instant gratification. However, for an established business like Maurices, the digital commerce trend could be cannibalizing to the brand’s vision, as in-store experiences are replaced with the click of a mouse. It then becomes increasingly important to find the proper balance of online and offline channels to deliver their vision. I would argue that Maurices’ most digital potential lies within finding creative ways to keep the in-store shopping experience fun, exciting and adaptable to customers’

The retail giant “Abercrombie & Fitch” (A&F) have produced their casual clothing products based towards the younger consumer base for decades. Abercrombie & Fitch originally built its business plan, “plan around what had been called the sexualized marketing of young, beautiful, and barely clothed models whose sculpted torsos and suggestive postures hinted at an anything-goes party scene” (Olson). This type of marketing consistently kept the company in hot water making the average consumer think as if they are not good enough for the A&F clothes and style.

The Internet has changed the way we do virtually everything, including the way we shop. However, shopping is not the only thing that has changed. In the last decade we have changed the way, we apply for loans, study, and even plan a vacation. Doing any of these things would have been impossible a few decades ago. At present, online banking, paying bills, ordering new services, and shopping online have become part of our daily lives. Traditional brick-and-mortar stores have been around much longer than online stores, but we cannot deny that online shopping is giving the traditional stores competition. Many consumers still choose to shop at regular brick-and-mortar stores because they like to see and

According to Turban and King (2003), internet technology renders retailers an additional channel for branding, transactions and customer relationship management, the adaptation of which may drive down retailers’ transaction costs, and ensuring faster and higher quality of customer interactions, resulting in enlarging the existing markets and consumer base. M&S realizes this and have tried to sell clothing via high street stores as well as via internet though they have experienced cost cutting, rationalisation and management changes in order to revive their business in recent years. Internet technology might enable sustainable competitive advantage, but problems remain on how to physically organize their online retail operations.

Convenience has been the deciding factor for the survival of online retail for the past couple of years. Whether it is the convenience of time or just simply having the luxury of items being shipped to any location, online shopping has become very popular. In Computer Weekly’s article “Are Bricks-and-Mortar stores the Next Step for Online Retail?” Clare McDonald discusses the future of online retail and the future for retail and small businesses. Agreeing with Miya Knights an IDC analyst,

To begin with, online shopping has become the new thing. With thousands of apps at ones fingertips, one can shop anywhere, and at any time. According to the article, analysts say that online shopping is one of the reasons for the drastic decline in sales. Piper Jaffray, conducted a survey of teenagers, and this survey showed that more than three-fourths of teenagers shopped online. Not only can you find better prices while shopping online, but you can get it conveniently and fast as Mr. Matthew McClintock pointed out. However, online shopping is not the only culprit to the decreasing profits for the suffering clothing companies, for unemployment rates factor in there as well.

Over the last decade, there was an increasing number of bricks-and-mortar retailers shifting onto the web. But now the tables have turned and it is interesting to note that there is a trend that pure play online retailers start to open up physical stores to put in valuable face time with their customers. Bonobos, a menswear brand built on the idea of better-fitting pants, was founded in 2007 on the internet. It was among the pioneers when it extended offline strategy, launching the Bonobos Guide Shop in 2011 to bring personalized, one-to-one service to those wanting to experience the brand in person, and later made its apparel available to customers at Nordstrom. (———>Anonymous 2012, Bonobos and Nordstrom Announce Partnership:

Be that as it may, did you likewise know you can now shop online and pick in-store on an extensive variety of items? It's simply one's the ways M&S is making you're shopping background less difficult. From men's, ladies' and youngsters' garments, shoes sacks and accomplices to home

Unfortunately, many online retailers have begun to catch up with many of these core competencies. The concepts of next-day delivery and “above and beyond” customer service are no longer the “WOW” factors that they may have been five years ago. However, the relationships that make up “Powered by Zappos” are tough to beat and give the company a competitive advantage through its supply web. At the time of this case, Zappos still holds the niche of being an online shoe expert, but companies

Today, we’ll be looking at one of the major trends in the world – technology and how it’s technological advancements have change the world of retailing especially in the apparel industry, thus we will be looking at New Look. One of the major trends affecting the retailing industry is the increase in the number of people who prefer shopping for apparel on the Internet from the comfort of their home rather than a tradition brick and mortar store. Emerging technology such as mobile applications and online platforms are changing the way retailers do business.

Some businesses like Amazon and EBay have felt the huge impact of m-commerce. Though for most retail companies, sales via mobile devices is still a small fraction of total sales. When looking at the world as a whole, the potential for m-commerce is astounding. A lot of retailers are seeing increased sales via mobile devices with a larger percentage of those sales coming from tablets and less from Smartphones. M-commerce currently accounts for over 11% of all e-commerce sales and theses figure are still rising.