Estee Lauder will re-launch Gloss.com—with competing brands
The Estee Lauder Cos. will re-launch gloss.com, the fashion and makeup site, in September and will feature competing brands Chanel and Clarins, in addition to the Estee Lauder brands. Even though the site will be operated by Estee Lauder, it will be brand neutral, William Lauder, president of Clinique Laboratories, a division of Estee Lauder, told the Jupiter Retailing Forum Monday in Chicago. Controlling the look and feel of the brand on the Internet is important to Estee Lauder. “We are entering as a multi-brand competitor to retailers,” he said. “We will be offering the brand to consumers as they see it in the real world.”
Estee Lauder has had success with its individual brand sites, Lauder said. For instance, Clinique.com has registered 1.1 million customers, 28% of whom are new to the brand or returning customers who had lapsed. The percentages are even higher at other Lauder brands’ sites: Bobbi Brown has registered 60,000 users, 46% are new or lapsed; Origins, 170,000 users, 45% new or lapsed; Estee Lauder, 160,000 and 43%; and MAC, 80,000 and 31%. In addition, 24% of the buyers at the Bobbi Brown site live in states where there are no stores selling Bobbi Brown, meaning they probably never would have been Lauder customers except for the Internet.
This year, the company expects to launch what Lauder called “brand modules,” which department stores will link to when they want to sell Lauder cosmetics online. The shopper will move from the store site to the Lauder site, but the pricing will be set by the store, he said.
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