More women are browsing the Web for clothes and shoes the way they used to browse the windows of high-end boutiques, and e-commerce companies want to make sure they get some of these shoppers’ dollars.
On Tuesday, Piperlime, the online-only shoe site started by Gap, began selling high-end, trendy women’s clothing from brands like Marc by Marc Jacobs (a $498 magenta trench coat) and Theory ($245 wool trousers).
This could set the stage for fierce competition between Gap and Amazon.com for these coveted shoppers. Amazon vastly expanded its shoe selection in July, when it bought Zappos.com, the big online shoe retailer. Amazon also owns Shopbop.com, which sells high-end women’s clothing, including many of the same brands now sold by Piperlime. Both Zappos and Shopbop operate as independent Web sites.
Zappos and Piperlime have been competing with one another since Gap started Piperlime in November 2006, after Zappos’s success made it clear that women were eager to buy shoes online. Piperlime started selling handbags last year. Meanwhile, Zappos has also expanded into handbags and some apparel.
Piperlime and Zappos “address different needs that the customer has,” said Jennifer Gosselin, vice president and general manager of Piperlime. Zappos suits customers searching for a particular item, she said, while Piperlime wants to resemble “a beautiful boutique” as well as a magazine with fashion features.
For example, the celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe gives fashion advice on Piperlime’s site, and the company partnered with InStyle magazine on a feature about wedding shoes.
Piperlime decided to add apparel after observing, with some surprise, that its shoppers kept spending money on fashionable and expensive brands during the sharp downturn in consumer spending. Even last fall and winter, when e-commerce sales shriveled, “we still saw that very strong response to higher-end brands,” Ms. Gosselin said. The typical customer “is much more fashion-involved than we had even anticipated.”
Though Ms. Gosselin would not disclose Piperlime’s sales, she said that sales outpaced e-commerce sales of clothing overall and of Gap’s other brands, which include The Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy. Overall e-commerce sales of clothing and accessories were $8.8 billion in the first half of this year, according to comScore. That is down from $8.9 billion in the same period last year but up from $8.1 billion in the first half of 2007.
Another potential Piperlime competitor: The Gap itself. The Gap is in the middle of a big marketing campaign advertising its premium jeans, which sell for under $70. Jeans from other brands now for sale on Piperlime start around $125. Ms. Gosselin said that The Gap and Piperlime aim to offer a range of prices.
“Do we expect every Old Navy customer to shop Piperlime apparel? No. Do we expect some of them? Yes,” Ms. Gosselin said. For example, she expects that mothers who buy clothes for their kids at Old Navy might buy jeans made by 7 For All Mankind on Piperlime for themselves.
