As a child, I always liked to buy things from mail-order catalogs, both because I lived in an area that was far away from any shopping location and because I enjoyed getting mail. These days, the vast majority of my shopping is done over the internet. Like most people, I spend most of my time at work, have other commitments as well, and don’t always have time to get to a store.
Case in point: in college, I purchased much of my clothing from Old Navy, as it was inexpensive but of decent quality. After a while, particularly due to the trend of shirts becoming longer and more tunic-like, I had to stop shopping there, as I am a short girl (barely reaching 5′3″). However, in August, Old Navy announced that they would be offering Petite clothing on their website only, thus allowing me to stop having to spend money at pricier chains such as Ann Taylor Loft or Talbot’s to get shirts that fit me properly. Like Old Navy’s plus-sized line, the petite clothing is not available in their stores, so going to their brick and mortar location would still be fairly useless to me (although they do keep pants with shorter length inseams in the store). So, in utilizing internet-based distribution, the company is able to offer a greater variety in product with less overhead, driving up sales while keeping costs down, all due to a web-based sales component.
Additionally, as was mentioned in our class notes for this week, the internet has allowed smaller, independent businesses to flourish (although some of their business have no doubt lessened recently due to the downturn in the U.S. economy). In niche markets, this is a great benefit, allowing for a lot more selection and competition in pricing. A good example of this is Etsy, a kind of “Ebay for crafters”. Etsy works on set prices, rather than serving as an internet auction house, but it does the same thing that Ebay (originally, although this is now debatable given their new and more stringent auction rules) does– allows independent crafters or sellers to reach a much wider audience.
I think that Old Navy offering a specific line of clothing marketed toward a target group online is fantastic. I’m short as well and I have a hard time finding pants in my length, I love that I can have an entire line available at my fingertips. As I mentioned in my Blog, convenience is a huge determining factor for shopping online and Old Navy seems to understand that, by making more products available to that large internet shopping market.
I have never bought any type of clothing on-line. I have to try everything on. I am 5’8”, and I have another problem. Regular clothes can be to short, but the tall sizes may be to long. I really think that if I receive something through the mail and it doesn’t fit, it will be more of a pain to have to send it back than to just go to the store and get it there. Although, I do think it is wonderful for stores to be able to carry more inventory, sizes, selection, and be able to reach a larger clientele and not have the overhead to contend with.