Neiman Marcus to launch discount site
Though it’s only offering up a few details, The Neiman Marcus Group Inc. will launch a new e-commerce site sometime in the spring of 2007.
The new site will sell the multi-channel retailer’s liquidated merchandise. “Through the creation of a separate web site, we will sell end-of-season and past season clearance merchandise as a way to more efficiently liquidate inventory,” the company says in a recent SEC filing.
Rather than sell excess and unwanted inventory to an outside third party, Neiman Marcus, No. 37 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide to Retail Web Sites , believes it can a do a better job internally, says Jim Okamura, senior partner at research firm J.C. Williams. “They looked at the numbers and did a ‘build vs. buy’ scenario and decided it was better to do the job inside,” Okamura says. “It sounds like a straightforward financial decision.”
By building a new site and doing its own online inventory liquidation, Neiman Marcus retains control over its brand and how any excess merchandise is sold off; another benefit is finding new discount buyers and converting them into more long-term Neiman Marcus customers, Okamura says. “Neiman Marcus probably looked at how well other sites such as Overstock.com are doing and decided it made sense. They’ll probably pick up some new potential regular customers.”
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