Black Friday Sales Were Great. Now What? The weekend that began on Black Friday (Nov. 26) drew 212 million shoppers, who spent $45 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. Many retailers said November sales exceeded their ex- pectations. Clothing specialty stores enjoyed a particularly good Black Friday, according to Marshal Cohen, chief re- tail analyst at market-research firm The NPD Group. Ac- cording to the NPD’s “Anatomy of Black Friday & Cyber Monday” survey, released Nov. 30, apparel specialty stores were the fifth-best-trafficked retailers during Black Friday weekend. “Friday was about door-busting deals, but Sat- urday and Sunday, consumers went to specialty stores,” Cohen said. ➥ Black Friday page 6 Cyber Monday continues to attract consumers to the Web, and online retailers received some early Christmas cheer with the announcement that e-commerce sales on Nov. 29 saw a record-breaking day of more than $1 bil- lion. Aggressive discounting played a contributing factor in Cyber Monday’s success, and some e-tailers planned well ahead to come up with a strategy that focused more on brands than coupon codes. “For better or for worse, [discounting is what] we’ve all collectively done as retailers at least for the near future dur- ing Cyber Monday,” said Karmaloop (www.karmaloop. com) founder Greg Selkoe. Karmaloop had projected a robust increase of 60 percent Cyber Monday Brings Cheer to E-Tailers By Andrew Asch Retail Editor By Connie Cho Web Editor NEWSPAPER 2ND CLASS $3.50 VOLUME 66, NUMBER 52 DECEMBER 3–9, 2010 INSIDE: Where fashion gets down to business SM www.apparelnews.net Design Piracy law ... p. 2 Made in America ... p. 7 Industry Voices ... p. 8 ➥ Cyber Monday page 7 5 7 Web Watch Promotion-driven Black Friday business has retailers waiting for the next holiday rush. Early holiday spending online hits $1 billion. In The black Retail centers across Southern California reported big crowds for Black Friday. Clockwise, from top, shoppers in front of South Coast Plaza’s J.Crew store, a boy shopping at the Glendale Galleria, a big line during early morning on Black Friday at the Citadel Outlets mall, another Citadel scene and a sign outside South Coast Plaza’s Sony Style store.
Transcript
Black Friday Sales Were Great. Now What?
The weekend that began on Black Friday (Nov. 26) drew 212 million shoppers, who spent $45 billion, according to the National Retail Federation.
Many retailers said November sales exceeded their ex-pectations. Clothing specialty stores enjoyed a particularly good Black Friday, according to Marshal Cohen, chief re-tail analyst at market-research firm The NPD Group. Ac-cording to the NPD’s “Anatomy of Black Friday & Cyber Monday” survey, released Nov. 30, apparel specialty stores were the fifth-best-trafficked retailers during Black Friday weekend. “Friday was about door-busting deals, but Sat-urday and Sunday, consumers went to specialty stores,” Cohen said.
➥ Black Friday page 6
Cyber Monday continues to attract consumers to the Web, and online retailers received some early Christmas cheer with the announcement that e-commerce sales on Nov. 29 saw a record-breaking day of more than $1 bil-lion.
Aggressive discounting played a contributing factor in Cyber Monday’s success, and some e-tailers planned well ahead to come up with a strategy that focused more on brands than coupon codes.
“For better or for worse, [discounting is what] we’ve all collectively done as retailers at least for the near future dur-ing Cyber Monday,” said Karmaloop (www.karmaloop.com) founder Greg Selkoe.
Karmaloop had projected a robust increase of 60 percent
Cyber Monday Brings Cheer to E-Tailers
By Andrew Asch Retail Editor
By Connie Cho Web Editor
NEWSPAPER 2ND CLASS
$3.50 VOLUME 66, NUMBER 52 DECEMBER 3–9, 2010
INSIDE:Where fashion gets down to businessSM
www.apparelnews.net
Design Piracy law ... p. 2Made in America ... p. 7Industry Voices ... p. 8
➥ Cyber Monday page 7
5 7
Web Watch
Promotion-driven Black Friday business has retailers waiting for the next holiday rush.
Early holiday spending online hits $1 billion.
In The black
Retail centers across Southern California reported big crowds for Black Friday. Clockwise, from top, shoppers in front of South Coast Plaza’s J.Crew store, a boy shopping at the
Glendale Galleria, a big line during early morning on Black Friday at the Citadel Outlets mall, another Citadel scene and a sign outside South Coast Plaza’s Sony Style store.
DECEMBER 3–9, 2010 CALIFORNIA APPAREL NEWS 7
over last year. Instead, Selkoe said, the company saw sales surge 240 percent over last year.
Karmaloop offered 25 percent off on purchases of $65 and up.
The Boston-based e-tailer carries several West Coast brands, such as Elwood, Tavik Swimwear and BB Dakota.
The streetwear-centric site saw accessories such as cell phone holders and jewelry do well for the holidays, according to Selkoe.
Selkoe said Cyber Monday typically is the fourth or fifth most-successful shopping day for Karmaloop and anticipates an even bigger shop-ping day to come later in December.
“This seems to [have been] the most heavily discounted Cyber Monday ever,” said Jon Fahrner, chief executive officer of Palo Alto, Calif.–based online store Moxsie (www.moxsie.com). “For a retailer like Moxsie, the abundance of promo-tional pricing in the marketplace meant that offer-ing a compelling discount alone probably wasn’t enough to get a huge amount of attention.”
Fahrner said that Moxsie began planning months ago to ensure that featured designers and products presented on Cyber Monday were a strong combination of gift items and things people wanted for themselves. “We felt it was im-portant to keep the focus on the compelling mer-chandise over deep discounts. It definitely paid off,” Fahrner said.
Moxsie offered 20 percent off on Cyber Mon-day, but the discount was not always used, accord-ing to Fahrner. Fahrner reported that Moxsie’s sales were up 300 percent over its daily average. Fahrner attributed the increase in sales to Moxsie’s unique product lines, which cater to shoppers on the hunt for indie and up-and-coming brands. Moxsie sells items from brands such as Dolce Vita, Hellz and Tulle.
Beverly Hills, Calif.–based contemporary fash-ion e-tailer Stanton James (www.stantonjames.com) conducted holiday sales out of the gate prior to Black Friday with a special private sale that be-gan on Nov. 18 and presented items at as much as 70 percent off. Co-owner Brooke Price said the private sale was successful in attracting new cus-tomers to the site.
Stanton James saw a sales increase of approxi-mately 35 percent, according to Price.
Styles that sold well on Stanton James were the “Ravishing Over-the-Knee” boot by vegan shoe
line Cri de Coeur, which retails for $139, and a hooded scarf by designer Aleksandr Manamis, which re-tails for $349.
While sales in the staggering billion-dollar range can be a positive sign of eco-nomic recovery, some e-tailers see consum-ers continuing to be selective with their spending.
“People aren’t go-ing out to spend unless it’s the right piece and [they] are willing to pay for it,” Price said.
Fahrner said that while the success of Black Friday and Cyber Monday may not necessarily mean there is a complete bounce back in the econ-omy, he agreed that it’s the product that speaks to the customer.
“The fact that a large amount of our sales was made up of non-gift items is interesting,” Fahrner said. “From what we see and hear from our social following, people seem excited to gift themselves with products they have been eying or splurge on new things they just discovered. This is definitely
a positive sign for holi-day sales.”
The ability of choice and expedient search continues to make the Web an attractive shop-ping destination.
“I think people are getting a little tired of the Black Friday frenzy and want to stay home,” said Jennifer Song, vice president of market-ing for San Francisco–based fashion site Tobi (www.tobi.com). “Peo-ple are more comfort-
able with shopping online.”Tobi sells pieces from brands such as Alexan-
der Wang, Diane von Furstenberg, James Perse and Vince, as well as an array of denim lines such as J Brand, 7 For All Mankind, Citizens of Hu-manity and Joe’s Jeans.
Song reported that Tobi’s overall holiday sales were up but declined to state by how much.
Tobi offered 30 percent off and extended the sale until 6 a.m. on Nov. 30. “I think people are expecting discounts, and online stores have to compete with bricks-and-mortar stores,” Song said. ●
NEWS
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Cyber Monday Sales Soar to More Than $1 BillionReston, Va.–based Web-marketing firm com-
Score Inc. reported that Cyber Monday reached slightly more than $1 billion in online spending, up 16 percent from a year ago, representing the heavi-est online-spending day in e-commerce and the first to surpass the billion-dollar mark.
“Cyber Monday was a historic day for e-commerce as we saw daily spending surpass $1 billion for the first time,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni in a statement. “The online holiday shopping season has clearly gotten off to a very strong start, which is wel-come news. At the same time, it’s important to note that some of the early strength in consumer spending is almost certainly the result of retailers’ heavier-than-normal promotional and discounting activity at this early point in the season. So, while we anticipate that there will be more billion-dollar spending days ahead as we get deeper into the season, only time will tell if
overall consumer online spending remains at the el-evated levels we’ve seen thus far.”
According to San Mateo, Calif.–based Web-research firm Coremetrics, a division of International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), online sales on Cyber Monday were 31.1 percent higher over Black Friday sales, and consumers had an average order value of $194.89, which was an 8.3 percent increase over last year.
Coremetrics also reported that the shopping-cart conversion rate for the apparel category was up 3.21 percent over last Cyber Monday.
“Cyber Monday has proven to be the biggest on-line shopping day of the year so far,” said Coremet-rics Chief Strategy Officer John Squire. “Based on our analysis, it will remain the biggest day of the year. We anticipate that consumers will continue to shop and will analyze trends to determine how the coming weeks shape up.”—C.C.
CYBER SUCCESS: Cyber Monday proved successful for many retailers and pushed online sales to more than $1 billion.
MADE IN AMERICA
For Wellen and Astronot, two fledgling Los Angeles–based brands, domestic production is a challenge and a boon as they strive to find their place in the competitive menswear market.
Matt Jung launched Wellen—a Glendale, Calif.–based line of surf-tinged T-shirts, hoodies, denim, walk shorts and wovens—in 2009 with no prior apparel experience and a big dose of do-it-yourself attitude. Suft Sidhu and her brother, Neil Sidhu, are fashion newbies who launched Astronot, a men’s premium T-shirt line this year, making their first-ever shipment to Ron Herman in May.
For both brands, each season is a learning experience—and one lesson the people behind both brands are ea-ger to master is how to be successful even as they learn the ropes.
“We’re outsiders,” Suft Sidhu said. “That’s a challenge, but it also allows us to have an open mind about design. We have a willingness to play and do things that might be consid-ered wrong but that work for us.”
Like many other small brands, Astronot doesn’t have the volume to
justify overseas production of its ring-spun-cotton, custom-dyed T-shirts. But that has never been the goal, Sidhu said. “Producing in Los Ange-les reflects who we are as individuals. We’re detail-oriented and obsessive. We want to keep a tight grasp on ev-erything—fit, color and turnaround.” Working closely with contractors and being present day-to-day helps the siblings/designers find inspiration for the line, she said. “The idea is that you can’t outsource creativity.”
There is a considerable price to pay for the luxury of domestic pro-duction, Sidhu concedes. Astronot, which requires contractors to devel-op custom colors for the brand and apply a two-part softening process to the T-shirts, wholesales for $14 to $16—a low range compared with competitors with similar offerings. Sidhu said she and her brother keep prices low to position Astronot com-petitively and entice buyers to place orders. “It is worth it to us; we’re willing to take that hit,” she said.
Wellen’s Jung has divided the pro-duction of his line between domestic and overseas contractors. T-shirts,
while dyed and printed domestically, are purchased in bulk from a foreign manufacturer. The brand’s first-ever denim collection was also produced overseas—an experience Jung said he isn’t keen to relive. “I tried overseas manufacturing, and I really didn’t like it. In future seasons, we’ll find a way to make jeans here.” The rest of Wellen’s offerings are produced
in Orange County, Calif., at an “off-the-radar” contractor whose identity, Jung said, he jealously guards.
For Jung, domestic manufacturing has proven to be a boon. “Our factory can make almost anything we need at the best quality,” he said. Knowing that the quality of his goods will be consistent and good helps him earn the trust of retailers such as American Rag, Swell.com and Thalia Surf. But there is a price to pay. “I know we’re probably not getting the best deal, but they give us confidence in what we do. Contractors—really good contrac-tors—can be hard to find,” he said.
While he likes the idea of bringing his T-shirt production stateside, Jung said doing so would take a bite out of his business. “We have super-slim margins on our wovens and flannels and other items. T-shirts give us the biggest margins; they’re our bread and butter. If we made them here, we would have to raise our prices or narrow that margin a lot.” The brand, whose T-shirts retail for up to $38, is already among the most expensive at the surf shops that make up the bulk of its distribution.—Erin Barajas
