Welcome to the first of WebAdvantage.net’s interview series. We got really tired of all the naysayers pummeling the Internet industry — we know it’s alive and well, and that there are firms who are still growing and prospering in this environment. With this interview series, which will appear sporadically in the weeks to come (don’t worry, your regular WebAdvantage.net tips aren’t going away!), we will bring you the success stories of those in the trenches with proof-positive results. We’d like to hear your feedback on our success series, as well as if you’ve got a success story to share. Please send all email to mailto:successes@webadvantage.net.
This week’s interview is with Peter Zophy, Vice President of Ecommerce for Jos. A. Bank, a 96-year-old manufacturer and retailer of fine men’s apparel. Jos. A. Bank has seen absolutely remarkable sales growth the past year (sales are up 188%!), much of which has been attributed to the Internet.
BACKGROUND
Already selling through its own retail stores and catalogs, Jos. A. Bank launched their web site it 1998 using their printer, R.R. Donnelley & Sons (since they already had all digital images of Jos. A. Bank’s items). Donnelley accepted a percentage of sales deal.
Peter Zophy arrived in December 1999 when they company was looking to move the site in-house to preserve more of the sales dollars that were being paid out to Donnelley. In August of 2000 the new site went live, with the most important improvement to the consumer being real-time inventory information. Addressing this issue virtually eliminated the majority of the previous complaints made by online purchasers. The site is now fully- developed and maintained in-house.
THE INTERVIEW
| Hollis: | What’s Jos. A. Bank’s positioning statement? |
| Peter: | “Jos. A. Bank is a high-end men’s apparel retailer with value” |
| Hollis: | What are the main goals of your web site? |
| Peter: | 1) Increase sales & profits 2) Enhance awareness in a way that’s consistent with our two other channels 3) Increase new customer acquisition 4) Increase conversion rates |
| Hollis: | How has your success been related to these goals? |
| Peter: | Well, our overall sales are up over 188% since last year and profitability is up over 200% because we’ve increased sales without increasing other costs.
Also, our new-to-file customers is about 40% of our current database when industry average is about 20%. To increase our conversion rates we’re continually striving to make our site as fast and as easy as possible to use. We also modify and improve navigation based on customer feedback and clickstream analysis, improve the site’s searching capabilities, plan to integrate a live help/chat feature and more personalization. |
| Hollis: | What’s been your marketing strategy to achieve such success? |
| Peter: | The number one thing we’ve focused on is building our own email list as big and as fast as possible. The other components of our strategy have involved our affiliate program and putting our URL on all the sales and marketing materials of our other channels. |
| Hollis: | Can you give me some specifics of your execution? |
| Peter: | We have multiple points of contact to try to acquire email names: purchasers are asked by phone, when they call in their orders; we conduct sweepstakes in which email addresses are mandatory for participation; on the site the consumer is asked to join the list on several different pages; and most recently, we’ve tested newsletter sponsorships targeting high-end business professionals (like Motley Fool’s).
Our mantra all along is “test, test, test.” This helps us reduce costs and risks. For example, we’ll test a number of different email lists of say 5,000 addresses vs. on list of 100,000. We’ll find out what lists are performing and then roll out from there. |
| Hollis: | Where do you find most of your new customers come from? |
| Peter: | The #1 source is our affiliate program, then search engines, then folks who hear our radio ads or see our print ads, and finally by word of mouth. |
| Hollis: | What’s been your biggest challenge(s)? |
| Peter: | Keeping up with customer demands. Customers are very good at giving feedback. We sort repeated feedback by volume and need and then try to make site adjustments/ enhancements accordingly. |
| Hollis: | What about technical challenges? |
| Peter: | At first our hosting wasn’t up to par. Our site went down a lot. But the company also invested in hiring a very sharp CIO, who addressed this as one of his first issues. Ever since, everything’s been running really smoothly. |
| Hollis: | What upcoming online technologies intrigue you right now? |
| Peter: | Improving images so that apparel etailers can overcome the touch/feel/fit obstacle. Companies like My Virtual Model and LuuLuu are starting to offer services like this which, if they work, will be a big boost, I think. |
| Hollis: | What kinds of trends do you see in the future of online? |
| Peter: | Multi-channel retailers are going to be the ones who keep winning — it’s all about giving customers choices. |
| Hollis: | Do you think online-only players will be able to do the reverse and open up off-line stores successfully? |
| Peter: | Not really, but that’s an interesting question. Brick and mortar stores require much more capital and marketing dollars to make successful. I don’t think most pure-plays can do that. |
| Hollis: | So what is the achievement you are most proud of? |
| Peter: | Definitely the increase in our sales and profitability. |
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