Online personalization has proven so successful for the Columbus, OH, Lattitude store that the company has closed its store and become an online-only retailer of personalized apparel. A year and a half ago, the company launched ShopLattitude.com and has received about 500,000 visitors in the past six months, Paul Thibault, operations manager, tells InternetRetailer.com. When the store’s lease came up for renewal, it chose to close the store. “It makes more sense to be purely online,” he says.
The site is equipped with an art and font program that allows shoppers to custom imprint clothing with messages and clip art. Thibault says the feature is based on a standard program that the company tweaked to suit ShopLattitude.com’s needs. Shoppers manipulate an easy-to-use interface and can see their messages printed on the merchandise in the colors and fonts they choose, and positioned how they want the messages to appear.
Thibault says the company has marketed the site only with magazine ads and has been pleased with the reception so far. It is developing a spin-off site with additional features that it plans to launch in two months.
ShopLattitude.com grew out of a 15-year-old store called L.A. Sports that sold mostly to sports teams, fraternities and sororities. Shoppers could place their order in the store and have their imprinted merchandise within an hour, Thibault says.
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