first
published on November 2, 2004
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Guess? Eyes Growth With New
E-Commerce Strategy
Robert McAllister
Technology Editor
Los Angeles–based
Guess? Inc. is strengthening its
commitment to e-commerce. The company has recently
expanded its online retail presence through a venture
with Seattle-based Mercent, whose
Mercent Commerce System data-exchange application
facilitates transactions between Guess’ e-commerce
system and Amazon.com’s platform
provider.
Guess has its own sales engine
at
www.guess.com
and has already been doing business on Amazon, but
the alliance with Mercent lands the company in nine
other portals, including AOL InStore, MSN
Shopping, Shopping.com, Yahoo! Shopping, Froogle,
PriceGrabber.com and MySimon. “Their
existing technology wasn’t serving its purpose,”
said Eric Best, chief executive
of Mercent, which launched earlier this year and
now counts Lucky Brand Dungarees
and The Wet Seal Inc. among its
clients. “For Guess, the ongoing costs to
operate went down [using Mercent].”
The Mercent Commerce System facilitates
the automated scheduled exchange of product, order,
inventory, fulfillment and settlement data between
Guess’ data center and the Web services–based
interfaces of consumer marketplaces.
It is basically “an install
it and forget about it” system, Best said.
For Guess, it does not pay to build a direct interface
with Amazon when Mercent can do it and add another
nine resources, he added.
Guess Chief Executive Officer
Paul Marciano agreed. “We selected
Mercent for their ability to rapidly expand our
online sales efforts through Amazon.com and other
leading shopping portals,” he said.
Company-owned Web ventures are
important, but more online shoppers are using multiple-resource
sites to reach a broader spectrum of stores, Best
said. Mercent’s vendor base has a consumer
base of more than 100 million shoppers.“Retailers
that are using e-commerce are now looking beyond
their own sites and at the millions of online shoppers
that frequent marketplaces such as Amazon.com and
Yahoo! Shopping and wondering how they can expand
brand and product visibility through these channels,”
said Rob Garf, senior analyst for
AMR Research, an independent research
company based in Boston.
Mercent, founded by former Amazon
executives, has quickly built up a strong client
base since its launch earlier this year.
Crabtree & Evelyn, The Shane Co., Car Toys,
Proflowers and Fortunoff
are among its customers.
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Economy
Confidence drops.
The Consumer Confidence Index fell for
the second month in a row to 92.8 in October from 96.7 in
September, according to the Conference Board, the
New York–based research firm that compiles the index.
The Board’s Expectation Index also
fell in October to 92.0 from 97.7, and the Present Situation
Index dropped slightly to 94.5 from 95.3. The indices are
based on a sampling of 5,000 U.S. households.
Laundry heads to Miami.
Vernon-based Laundry by Shelli Segal, a
division of New York–based Liz Claiborne,
opened a store in the Aventura Mall in
Miami. The company has three other stores in New York, Los
Angeles and Costa Mesa, Calif.
Jared Gold, retailer.
Dark Dynamite, the Salt Lake City–based
parent company of Jared Gold’s Black Chandelier
brand, announced plans to open a seasonal Black
Chandelier Renegade Retail boutique in the Trolley
Square Mall in Salt Lake City. The store, set to
open at the end of November, will carry Black Chandelier
men’s and women’s apparel, Pink Chandelier
childrenswear, home wares, stationery, and a “stocking-stuffer
vending machine,” according to the company. The store
will remain open though January, when nearby Park City,
Utah, will host the Sundance Film Festival. During the season,
Gold will present weekly live-music events and cabaret performances
in the store, and Dark Dynamite plans to promote the store
in the local and national press. Earlier this year, publicly
traded Dark Dynamite, then called NCI Holdings,
acquired the Black Chandelier brand. Designer and founder
Gold relocated from Los Angeles to Utah to continue to oversee
the company.
Candie’s Badgley
Mischka deal.
New York–based shoe and apparel maker Candie’s
Inc. struck a deal with Escada U.S.A. to
purchase B.E.M. Enterprise Ltd., the holding
company for the Badgley Mischka brand.
The deal covers the designer brand, two licensees for bridal
gowns and fur coats, and the rights to operate the Badgley
Mischka retail store in Beverly Hills. The deal follows
Candie’s repositioning as a multi-line licensing company.
Earlier this year, the company licensed its Candie’s
and Bongo footwear business. Last year,
the company began licensing its Bongo jeans business, with
the strategy of having the Bongo business fully licensed
by early 2005.
Textiles
Galey & Lord sale approved.
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia
approved the acquisition of textile maker Galey & Lord
Inc. by Patriarch Partners LLC. The company is expected
to emerge from bankruptcy protection when the transaction
closes this month. Galey & Lord filed for Chapter 11
bankruptcy protection in August to expedite the sale of
the company. New York– based Patriarch will pay $40
million in cash and assume certain secured obligations,
contracts, employee obligations and administrative liabilities
for the company.
Quote of the Week
“What I love about the West is we have space. You can see the horizon— it’s a horizontal way of looking at things. The East Coast is more vertical, you have to look up. The whole democratic ideal of what I do comes from the horizon, so we had to be in L.A."
—Christina Kim, designer of Los Angeles–based label Dosa,
discussing the philosophy behind her location in The New York Times Magazine
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