Saks Fifth Avenue. com
By: Marie Grove and Pei Zhang
1
History
• 1924: First Saks Fifth Avenue stored open and became the first large
retail operation to locate in what was a primarily residential district
• 1926: Adam Gimbel became President of Saks Fifth Avenue and
expanded stores coast to coast
• 1926-1969: Adam Gimbel traveled all over the world in search of items
that would Saks above all other specialty retailers (he retired in 1969)
• 1972-1989: 20 new stores opened throughout the country
• 1992: The first Saks Fifth Avenue outlet store opened in Franklin Mills,
Pennsylvania
• 1995: The outlet division name was officially changed to Off 5th
• 1996: Saks became a public company as Saks Holdings, Inc.
• 2000: Saks Fifth Avenue launched saks.com, offering in-store
categories, as well as exclusive products and content
• 2013: Saks Incorporated was acquired by Hudson’s Bay Company
(HBC)
2
Saks.com
• Why launched Saks.com
• Easier for customers to choose among Saks Fifth Avenue’s
seasonal trends and products
• Improving product selection experience
• Large scale photography
• Product detail pages
• Designers’ showcase and trends
• Result: The overhauled e-commerce capability at Saks is
expected to boost sales of the company in 2013
3
Saks.com
• “Saks.com delivers enhanced, personalized shopping experience,
and is committed to providing the same legendary service and style
found in all Saks Fifth Avenue stores.”
• Offers a large assortment of products from men’s, women’s and
kids designer apparel to jewelry, beauty products, accessories and
items for the home.
4
Saks.com
• Saks Fifth Avenue.com offers oversea shipping to 101
countries and the normally international orders should be
delivered within 12 days.
5
Saks.com
• E-commerce is handled by Saks Direct.
• Its distribution center can do just in time process for shoes
and apparels departments and most online orders.
6
Saks. com
• Main competitors
•Traditional departments
•neimanmarcus.com
•nordstrom.com
•bloomingdales.com
•Others:
•
shopbop.com
•
asos.com
7
International shopping experience
• Compare Saks.com with Neiman.com
• Saks offers the same merchandise to their international
customers as their US customers. Almost anything that is
presented on Saks.com can be shipped outside US.
• Neiman offers out of fashion merchandise for Asian
customers. Some brands are not offered to certain countries.
• Asian customers can not buy Prada on Neiman.com.
8
International shopping experience
• Payment
• Saks: Using US dollars for most countries,expect some
counties that have strong currencies such as Japan
• Neiman: Using local currency
• Example:
9
Saks
Neiman
International shopping experience
• Shipping
• Saks: normally not offer free international shipping
• Neiman: free international shipping for order over $100
• International marketing promotions
• Saks: None
• Neiman: different version of website
•
for different countries
• Some international customers
• post discount information on
• their social network
10
Saks.com and Social Media
The social circle includes:
•Pinterest
•Instagram
•Facebook
•Twitter
•Tumblr
•Saks POV
• Lookbooks
• Videos
• Catalogs
Mobile Commerce:
•App available for
smartphones and tablets
11
SWOT Analysis
• Strengths
• Saks is well- known for taste and elegance and is an
established brand
• Renowned for its superlative selling services and
merchandise offerings
• Best of European and American designers for men and
women
• Strong multi-channel platforms
• Have customer loyalty based on their product quality
• Weaknesses
• Online pricing, in store and catalogs don’t match up
• Customer service needs improvement
• Shipping is free but returns are not free
12
SWOT Analysis (cont.)
• Opportunities
• Should expand global presence further
• Make international partnerships for promotion
opportunities
• Offer exchanges on international orders
• Threats:
• Extremely competitive industry
• Market demand is based on the current economy
• Short international return period
13
Reference
• http://tommytoy.typepad.com/tommy-toy-pbtconsultin/2012/04/r-etailers-always-seem-to-be-fightingthrough-notoriously-tight-operating-margins-so-anycompetitive-advantage-that-accrue.html
• http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/94584/Saks-BoostseCommerce
• http://www.saksfifthavenue.com/About-Us
14