Bill Bittner

J. Crew to Put Outlet Savings Online

August 31, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
J. Crew Group plans to put its factory outlet sales online in September in a bid to make its deals more accessible for cash-strapped consumers. How do you weigh the cannibalization risks for Crew versus the opportunity to reach more value-conscious consumers?      [more...]

This is an interesting call on the part of J.Crew. I don't think anyone can really predict what will happen, but the bigger picture is that we all have to learn to live with greater uncertainty. Whether it is because things are moving faster or the world is getting smaller, if there is nothing else we learn from 9/11 it is that the US is not isolated from the rest of world. Whether it is economics, weather, religion, or politics, we must now be able to adjust our plans as events we may have never expected evolve.

For a manufacturer, what better way is there to adjust to changing demand than to have a robust return policy that encourages retailers to get non-selling merchandise out of the main retail channels? If slow moving merchandise in the main channels can be replaced with fast movers it is a win/win for everyone. Retailers get the slow stuff out of the store and price sensitive consumers become walking advertisements for the full price merchandise.

As traditional forecasting methods become less reliable and manufacturers experiment with smaller target audiences, the need for a robust return policy will only increase. It will be interesting to see how the J.Crew experiment comes out.