Apparel designer and marketer Tommy Hilfiger Corp. sells mostly through other companies’ retail stores, but it relies on e-mail to stay in direct touch with shoppers. And when soliciting addresses, the brand itself does all the work, Fiona Swerdlow, vice president of e-commerce, tells InternetRetailer.com. “E-mail is the primary way we talk to customers,” Swerdlow says.
Hilfiger has managed to build its e-mail address list without offering incentives or promoting its e-mail service in other marketing programs, she says. Customers come to its Tommy.com, a product information site with a store locator, mostly through natural web searches or through their general familiarity with Hilfiger, she adds. “People come to us because we’re a well-known brand,” Swerdlow says.
E-mail communication has been a crucial way for Hilfiger to let customers know about the availability of seasonal merchandise and special promotions and events in stores, she adds. “If Tommy Hilfiger himself will appear in a store, we’ll e-mail customers to let them know,” Swerdlow says.
Hilfiger doesn’t track its e-mail messages with coupons or other methods, and it doesn’t survey store shoppers to ask what lured them to a store, Swerdlow says. But e-mail campaigns that alert customers to retail promotions usually result in strong store traffic and sales, she adds. “E-mail has a lot to do with that,” she says.
To get more control over its e-mail campaigns, Hilfiger switched in April from an outsourced e-mail service to a system from Bigfoot Interactive that it runs on its own servers, Swerdlow says.
E-mail marketing may play an expanded role for Hilfiger in the near future, because it’s looking into launching an e-commerce site for more direct contact with customers, Swerdlow adds. “E-mail is incredibly important to anyone doing business online,” she says.
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