Casual Male reaches out to other online retailers

Though it has been selling on the web for at least five years, Casual Male Retail Group Inc. is establishing new merchandising relationships with other Internet retailers to build up its online and offline brand awareness.

In 2004, Casual Male, No. 363 in the Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide to Retail Web Sites, began selling big and tall men’s clothes and accessories on Amazon.com. Now the multi-channel retailer is building another e-commerce relationship with Sears Holdings Corp. and is selling online at Sears.com.

In June, Casual Male announced a merchandising and e-commerce arrangement to sell big and tall sportswear, active wear and apparel basics in hard-to-find men`s sizes on Sears.com. In the near future, Casual Male will expand its presence on Sears.com to also include other merchandise such as dress shirts, pants, shoes and suit separates.

"The relationship with Sears provides an excellent opportunity to expand the awareness of our brand," says David Levin, Casual Male`s president and CEO. "Casual Male is increasing its presence as a multi-channel retailer."

Casual Male sells online at CasualMale.com and RochesterClothing.com, but is establishing web ties to Internet retailers with more traffic in order to build a higher profile in the $6 billion men’s big and tall apparel market. “It’s a $6 billion market, but also a very fragmented one,” says a spokesman.

Overall web sales for Casual Male have grown about 200% in the last two years to about $16.5 million in 2004. “E-commerce may represent 6% to 7% of our total sales this year and we are happy with the growth,” the spokesman says.