How one analyst grades the new TJMaxx.com: so far, so good

Though it’s early on and the company still isn’t saying much about the launch, at least one web retailing analyst likes what he sees so far at the new TJMaxx.com.

But to launch against a host of other competitors in the heavily populated online apparel space and succeed, TJMaxx will have to be very consistent with its discount pricing strategy, constantly add merchandise to its product pages and use the web to drive multi-channel sales, says Jim Okamura, Chicago-based senior partner with retail consultants J.C. Williams Group

“I like what I see at their site and I expect that this is long overdue,” Okamura says. “T.J. Maxx may have delayed a launch for this site for quite some time because they work with a very unique business model.”

Like the chain’s stores, T.J.Maxx.com features daily prices that are 20% to 60% less than department and specialty store regular prices and sells to the chain’s core customers: fashion, value-conscious, middle to upper-middle income shoppers.

One reason T.J Maxx, a part of The TJX Cos. Inc. which also operates Marshalls, HomeGoods, A.J. Wright, and Bob`s Stores in the United States, Winners and HomeSense in Canada, and T.K. Maxx in Europe, may have launched without much fanfare is to ramp up slowly for the all-important holiday buying season, build a web shopping base over time and make sure it has enough available inventory to satisfy demand.

“They certainly aren’t going to put the brand at risk so they may want a low profile to start with and ramp up from there,” Okamura says. “The biggest challenge some of the discount apparel retailers have is making sure that they have enough new inventory to satisfy both the online shoppers and their regular store customers and that could be the case with T.J. Maxx.”