Saks.com attracts younger customers who don’t mind spending big on the web

Saks Fifth Avenue is attracting a younger clientele willing to spend big on the Internet, Denise Incandela, COO of Saks Direct, told attendees to the National Retail Federation Convention and Expo this week. The average of a buyer at Saks.com is 39 while the average in a Saks store is 49, she said. The most popular purchase is shoes, she said, with an average ticket of $350. In addition, 25% of the online customers don’t live within the trade area of a Saks store. Internet sales have not cannibalized any other sales channel, Incandela said.

After shoes, the most popular purchases are designer apparel, then contemporary apparel, she reported. The web is not an impediment to sale of high-ticket items, Incandela said, reporting that only a few weeks after launch, Saks.com sold a $50,000 ring.

Saks is re-integrating Saks Direct into the Saks structure, after startingthe web site as a separate operation. “With separate marketing, merchandising, content and creative teams, we were fragmenting the customer experience,” Incandela said. The re-integration “took tens of millions of dollars out of the cost of doing this.” Nevertheless, having the web site launched in a separate division was a good idea, she said. “That was the only way we could have gotten Saks.com launched,” she said. “I don’t believe the store team could have done it and kept up with their other responsibilities.”