With the (British)
customer in mind
Ever more retailers are acknowledging that a multi-channel strategy is not a luxury
anymore, but something of vital importance. Claire’s has finally decided to follow suit: the
American accessory brand for girls and young adult females has therefore
launched its European online shop from England.
“We have
created the site with our consumers in mind”, David Devany, director of
European e-commerce activities. Those consumers seem to be very British,
because the shop is only accessible in English and whoever surfs to www.claires.eu gets redirected immediately to www.claires.co.uk.
Otherwise
the statement of Devany is right: the shop offers a nifty “gift finder” for
those people looking for gifts, a whole list of online boutiques, video content
(with “how to”-tutorials), music lists and links to social media, “our
consumers’ key communication channel”. Next to the normal assortment that can
be found in physical stores, the online shop will also offer “web only”-products.
Also mobile
Claire’s
has studied its young customers well and it shows: the online shop is also ready
for m-commerce. “By the end of 2014, we foresee that mobile transaction usage will
overtake desktop computers”, says David Devany.
“Right now,
66 per cent of 14-23 year-olds own a smartphone and 73 per cent of teens are
active on social media. We wanted our site to be an extension to our consumers’ lifes, an engaging destination to explore the latest trends and share
their voice with us.”
“The launch
of e-commerce for our European business is very exciting for us. It enables us
to give our consumers a true 360 degree shopping experience, with the possibility to shop in-store, online and on mobile”, says Beatrice Lafon,
president of Claire’s Europe.
More than
3,000 shops
Claire’s
Stores is one of the largest specialised retailers of fashionable accessories
and jewellery for girls and young women aged 3 to 27 worldwide. Last year it
had net sales worth 1.56 billion dollar (+4.1%), more than 1.2 billion euro.
At the
start of the year the company had 3,085 stores in North America, Europe and
China and it has 392 boutiques in franchise (among other in Turkey, the Middle
East, Central and South America).
