Jeanswest
CEO Mark Daynes
Sales stars: Tailoring designs for the Australian market, value-add promotions, e-commerce investment, loyalty programs.
“At the start of 2012, Jeanswest had 225 stores across Australia and New Zealand. Our footprint hasn’t changed significantly during the past year nor do we envisage it to. For us now, the focus is around ensuring the stores we do have, are the right ones, generating return on investment and maximising the brand reach.
2012 saw a double digit increase in comp store growth against 2011. In December [SS12/13] we recorded one of our biggest weekly profits to-date in addition to a record sales figure for an individual item. We believe there are a number of factors that have attributed to this success including hiring in-house designers and producing localised ranges to ensure we are meeting the needs of the Australian consumer.
One of our most successful value based propositions was our $49.99 dress promotion which launched our December campaign. These results exceeded our high expectations. At the beginning of 2012, we saw a lot of brands entering the Australian market from overseas, so it was important for us to increase creativity, brand experience and to differentiate ourselves from the crowd. We also recognised the importance of creating value based promotions and propositions rather than discounting our brand on an on-going basis. We had minimal sales activity in 2012 when comparing with the marketplace, which ultimately contributed to our strong profit growth at year end.
Recognising the need for an increased point of difference for our consumer and the competitive marketplace within the Australian retail environment, we bolstered our in-house design team. The appointment of these eight designers has given us the ability to design specific styles and customise the key trends, it’s certainly working.
The Jeanswest brand is synonymous with quality fitting denim. However, over the past few years we have expanded our men’s and women’s fashion range from denim to dresses, shirts, jackets and knits. Our international design teams play an integral role in adapting our Australian range to their specific markets taking into consideration environmental conditions and local trends. These conditions can vary state by state and country by country depending on the location.
Our Australian women’s fashion range proved to be extremely popular in 2012 with some of our new season dress styles breaking Jeanswest records for units sold. Our coloured denim also took off with our Jeanswest customer embracing it in jeans, shorts, capris, curve embracers and maternity styles.
Jeanswest’s online store has consistently been ranked number one in sales in 2012. As part of our digital development, our store staff will be able to purchase product for their customers whilst their instore (if the product range is exclusive to online or the size has sold out) via our online store more easily in 2013. We have recently upgraded our e-commerce system to the Magento platform. This is a globally recognised platform and the benefits will start to become evident over the coming months with the introduction of rating and reviews, increased delivery options, advanced product search and filter mechanisms and most importantly the ability to match in-store offers online.
Our Reward Member database is a huge part of the Jeanswest business and will be relaunched with a new look in 2013 with a new ‘top’ level high-spending Members in addition to new member cards and a new and improved system, giving Jeanswest the opportunity to do more targeted communications.
2012 was a big year for Jeanswest, celebrating our 40 year anniversary whilst looking to the future as we continue to evolve the brand. We must remain relevant in the ever changing consumer retail environment. Thanks to our successful year, the company achieved all indicators whilst increasing our loyal followers through the Jeanswest Reward Program, now boasting over 1.7 million members, certainly one of the most important aspects of our newly revived business.”
my-wardrobe.com
Madeleine Allman
Head of my-wardrobe.com APAC
Marketing milestones: Bloggers High Tea; Goldman Sachs – Corporate
Styling Night; Sheraton on the Park, Macquarie Bank & my-wardrobe.com Runway Event.
#1: BLOGGERS HIGH TEA
“my-wardrobe.com gave a selection of hand-picked bloggers an exclusive preview of SS12 collections. As my-wardrobe.com is an online boutique, we realise the value and importance of bloggers and wanted to give them the opportunity to preview the collections before traditional print media. The high tea was held in the bespoke PR showroom and introduced bloggers to my-wardrobe.com, guiding them through the functionality of the site. Bloggers styled looks on themselves which were blogged or immediately utilised on social media. my-wardrobe.com Australia twitter and instagram accounts spiked during and after the event”.
#2: CORPORATE STYLING NIGHT
“my-wardrobe.com partnered up with Goldman Sachs and La Prairie for a Corporate Styling night. This event was a great opportunity to introduce my-wardrobe.com to a desired demographic of top tier executives, with a high disposable income. These women are in a position where they are high earners however do not necessarily have an education on dressing for the workplace/weekend/cocktail or desk to dinner. This event was about introducing my-wardrobe.com to these women and educating them on trends/ fabrications and styles to dress appropriately for various occasions. We had a selection of professional stylists on board to assist in educating the clients and had a selection of clothes and accessories from SS12 collections on hand for guests to peruse. We also had lap tops available for guests to use and purchase on the night with a special incentive discount. La Prairie had an area set up offering clients Caviar hand massages and a special gift with any purchase made on the night along with an exclusive discount. The event increased awareness of the workwear availability on the site, increased the customer database, gave a personal feel to an online-based business and gave guests the chance to see/feel the product prior to purchase. It increased sales and saw new customer acquisitions”.
#3: CORPORATE RUNWAY EVENT
“my-wardrobe.com partnered up with the Sheraton on the Park and Macquarie Bank to host a runway event for executives of Macquarie Bank. The event was held in the grand ballroom at The Sheraton on the Park and my-wardrobe.com put together a runway event showcasing a selection of looks from SS2012 collections. Guests were then encouraged to visit the lap top station where we had stylists on hand to give advice and guide through purchases. This resulted in a positive brand alignment with a global hotel partner, an increased database, customer education on how to use the site and introduction to workwear brands. Macquarie Bank executives enjoyed a luxury shopping night out with their team and word of mouth is always a very powerful form of advertising.”