SYDNEY: Inaugural participants in Westfield's e-commerce venture have revealed the complexity of partaking in the retail giant's bid to dominate the online market.
PeepToe digital manager Tina Nguyen said significant technological preparation was required over a few months to interface the shoe brand's existing e-boutique with westfield.com.au.
"It is very complicated due to the variables," she said. "Other variables for us include that we are redeveloping our own site at the same time."
She said despite launching, further work remains to ensure product availability is cohesive between the two portals.
"The Westfield site will pick up new products that we load on to the PeepToe site, but it won't be instant. It will depend on how frequently Westfield set up a 'refresh' to pick up new products, such as nightly, weekly and so forth."
Nguyen said PeepToe viewed the effort and investment as vital, as the Westfield site will reach a vastly different demographic than the PeepToe site. She said Wesfield had forecast significant traffic numbers, but she declined to reveal the expected outcome.
Farage director Joe Farage said he expects a 20 per cent increase to the label's online sales as a result of the new association.
"Westfield understand retail so they made it easy. We had to set up things such as a special eftpos terminal but nothing daunting."
Farage said orders via the Westfield site are directed to the Farage head office and are identified as a Westfield sale.
He said Westfield charges a monthly retainer and that there is a commission structure on sales. Farage has implemented its own delivery costs and returns policy.
Hussy general manager Chloe Seddon also said the womenswear label expects to benefit from a major boost in consumer reach.
"They [Westfield] have a large database of around 500,000 people compared to our 25,000," she said.
Seddon said Hussy will be participating in cross-promotions with Westfield to secure a sales surge. Offering limited edition products or gift with purchase incentives will be integral to the strategy.
Launched in November, the online mall currently hosts 50 brands, with another 50 to be included soon. Further businesses involved include Sportscraft, Leona Edmiston, Supre, Bardot, Tilkah, RM Williams and Seafolly.
The online mall allows shoppers to search by either retailer, product, brand, price or size. It allows shoppers to interact with each other by sharing their choices and purchases via social media sites.
Melinda Oliver