International fashion brand Guess has now opened an online store in the hope of reaching customers who cannot travel to any of their retail locations, the company has said.
Busbrand, which owns the Guess license for Australia, also encourages other Australian businesses to “look into the future” of online retailing to determine whether moving onto the internet will help sales.
The high-end fashion retailer currently operates 35 retail locations within Australia, but Busbrand managing director Simon Nankervis says moving into online is a logical step for the company.
“All international brands generally operate online stores, and it’s a logical extension in a place like Australia which is quite large geographically. It’s not economically feasible to operate stores in every city, and so what’s we’re offering is a complementary service for those customers who aren’t able to get to a physical store.”
Many high-end fashion retailers have so far refused to operate in the online space, opting for the more traditional bricks-and-mortar route to keep the in-store experience intact. But Nankervis says this traditional approach and online retailing aren’t contradictory.
“We examined our business, and our brand, and looked at where it was in the marketplace and we’ve decided it’s an appropriate time to make the move into e-retailing. Also with our brand, people looking to buy from us generally have a good understanding of what we offer.”
“It hasn’t been a light decision to make, and it certainly wasn’t a decision that’s been taken hastily. We’ve tried to keep that Guess experience similar to the interactive experience in a retail store, and so our website will mirror that.”
Nankervis says about 80% of the sales within the past week have been from areas where Guess does not operate a retail location, and he wants it to stay that way.
“This is being done by consumers where there is no retail location, such as the Northern Territory, or like in other parts of Western Australia as we only have one store in Perth.”
As a result, he believes Australia is slowly warming up to online retailing despite being behind countries such as the United States and Canada.
“I think Australians are pretty computer-savvy and it’s simply a logical extension for retailers to look into the next five or 10 years of where their business strategies are going. If you look overseas, these international brands have a presence because they simply don’t have a large number of stores for the convenience of shopping.”
“A lot of people will also go online to do research about our brand, finding products, investigating sizes and that sort of thing. That is all about making the customer experience more interactive, even if they don’t buy online, and that is just going to drive more sales for us. That can only be a good thing.”
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
