How plus-size Junonia.com goes after a petite market niche
By Lauri Giesen
A lot of niche retailers have found the Internet a good way to sell to a select group within a national audience. But at Junonia.com, it's more than just about appealing to a niche. It's about going after a niche within a niche.
That's because Junonia is using the Internet--as well as catalog distribution--
to sell plus-size clothing, which itself is considered a niche within the women's apparel business. But even more specifically, Junonia doesn't offer a full-line of plus-size clothing. It has concentrated on active wear with some expansion into other casual wear--such as jeans and causal tops. So while shoppers find a large selection of plus-size jogging suits, swimsuits, sports bras and exercise wear, they won't find any business suits or formal wear in any of Junonia's catalogs or web pages.
Protector of women
The web is key to making the appeal to such a narrow niche work, says Anne Kelly, founder and president. Junonia started with a catalog, but Kelly quickly realized that a catalog didn't extend her reach far enough to make a super-niche strategy work. "There are a lot of plus-size women who are beginning exercise programs or just starting to ski who need to buy active wear and we might have missed them because they've never shopped from another catalog before," she says. "But many would go online to find active wear in plus sizes."
Kelly founded Junonia in
St. Paul, Minn., after she noticed that many of the larger women working out in health clubs and the like had a hard time finding comfortable workout clothing in the right sizes. So much of the active wear market was dominated by
designers who were appealing to more petite women, she found.
In response to that need, Kelly, who had a background in government policy and finance with a master of business management degree from the London Business School, came up with a line of active wear for plus sizes.
She named her company Junonia, after the beautiful, rare seashell found on the beaches of Florida. That seashell takes its name from the Roman goddess Juno, who protects women. In art, Juno is typically depicted as a woman of large size and beauty.
With a name and a product line ready to go to market, Kelly began selling the products in March 1995 through catalogs. At that time, as she described it, "the Internet was still just a glimmer in everyone's eyes" in terms of being able to actually sell products. But Kelly soon saw the potential role that the Internet would play in selling her fashion line to a national audience. But even she just wasn't sure how big a role it would eventually play.
In the early years,
Junonia had a static web site where potential customers could see a sample of the clothing and find a phone number to order merchandise or request a catalog.
New customers
But by 1999, Kelly was convinced the time was ready for a fully functioning web site where customers could view the full offering and order clothing and pay online. Now six years later, 60% of the company's $10-million-plus in sales come via the Internet, according to Tom Lindmeier, director of e-commerce. He notes that much of those sales are the result of catalog customers who order online rather than calling a service center. Still, he estimates between 15% and 25% of total sales are from customers who are new to Junonia, never having received a catalog but coming to the site via web links or search.
And the Internet business is growing. Lindmeier estimates that last year close to 50% of sales came via the web, up from about 35% two years ago. He's not willing to predict how high the Internet percentage will go, but he expects additional growth. "There are no signs the growth in Internet
sales will stop," Lindmeier says.
Still, there are special challenges to selling clothing to the plus-size market via the Internet. While the web affords such customers privacy in that they don't have to shop in a plus-size store at the local mall, there are size and fit considerations. Fit is an especially important consideration to such shoppers and the inability to try on for size before purchasing is a special challenge for online retailers pursuing the plus-size market.
One way Junonia gets around this obstacle is that it designs and manufactures its own line of apparel. Then, once a regular customer figures out what her size is in the Junonia line, she can be confident that other apparel in that size will fit the same. This sets Junonia apart in the plus-size apparel business as most of the competitors sell multiple designer and manufacturer labels. In such situations, a size 18 in one line may not fit the same as a size 18 in another line.
"Fit is always an issue for women, but it's even more of an issue for larger women," Kelly says. "We've
noticed that with many of our customers, on their first order, they'll buy the same item in several sizes and then return the ones that don't fit. Once they get to know our system,
they will just order in one size."
Keeping cool
Also as part of manufacturing its own product, Junonia has more say about the types of fabrics that are used in its clothing, making sure that fabrics are chosen that not only look good on larger women, but also are comfortable for workout and sporting events. "We think the quality of our fabrics makes us unique in the plus-size market," Kelly says. "Our fabrics wear well. We know our customers often have a hard time finding clothing that they really like and feel comfortable
in. So we have to make sure it is made of fabrics that are going to last a long time."
Additionally, Kelly explains that larger bodies generate more heat and therefore it is important to use
fabrics that manage heat better. The Junonia line is made entirely of fabrics known to work well in situations where larger bodies are exercising.
Beyond manufacturing its own line and choosing its own fabrics, Junonia is
also looking to the Internet to allow it to
improve its sales. As an example, the company began a new offering within its liquidation
section that allows customers to shop by size. Because liquidated items are not available in every size, Junonia wanted to avoid situations where customers find items they like and then find out the items are not available in their size.
"We do all our liquidation
business online because it allows us to target the merchandise to the customer and reduce disappointment for customers of merchandise not being available," Kelly says.
Enhanced web site content is also important to Junonia and again that content can be tailored to the narrow niche that Junonia serves. It is able to give a lot of fashion and exercise tips geared toward larger women.
The real picture
And it doesn't use a lot of pictures showing skinny models exercising. While even other plus-size stores often use models who are more
average size or on the very low end of the plus-size clothing sizes,
Junonia requires its models, both those in the catalog and on the
Internet, be at least a size 18.
Junonia's clothing line starts at a size 14. In the general fashion industry, models typically are a size 6 or smaller.
By using the larger women as models, Junonia wants customers to get a good idea of how the clothing will actually look on a larger woman. "We get more letters on that topic than any other," Kelly says. "Our customers write us and say 'you depict me the way that I am.'"
Also as part of its content,
Junonia isn't afraid to use Kelly herself as an example. She is pictured and quoted prominently throughout the web page and Junonia's regulars have come to feel they know her. She has her own column where she talks about sports or active hobbies. In a recent column, for example, she talked about frolicking with your dog as well as swimming.
"Anne is seen on our home page and customers regularly send her e-mails where they comment on our clothes or service. They often e-mail her questions about fashion or ask her advice on how to find a particular item or what would look good on them," says Lindmeier.
Additionally, Kelly says she
benefits from the e-mails she
receives. "Sometimes, I'll get several e-mails from customers asking for items that we don't have and it will provide a good opportunity to develop a product," she explains. Additionally, letters that might be considered testimonials--where customers e-mail Kelly expressing pleasure with the product and service--are often featured on the web site.
More rich media
Junonia is continuing to look at new web tools and features that will enhance the sale of its product. "We want to do more with zoom-in photos and color swatching," Kelly says.
But not all tools have the same appeal. "We tried a beta test of a sizing system where customers could put in their measurements and they could see how the item would look on them, but the test was not successful. It was expensive to conduct and we did not see a high conversion rate," Kelly says. "Our customers didn't' seem interested in it--they know how our sizes fit and they know what they want."
In terms of marketing online, Junonia is using many of the same techniques used by most online retailers. It pays for search placement when potential customers type in such words as plus-size clothing and plus-size active wear, but pays the most for searches that use the most specific language.
It also has an
active affiliate marketing program. And because it is specializing in active wear, it is not afraid to affiliate with other plus-size clothing retailers who are selling online--especially those that do not carry a large active wear line.
"While we have paid for searches and gotten good results, our affiliate program has been the most productive for us," Lindmeier says. "We've affiliated with some couponing sites with strict controls over how these coupons can be used, but the best sites for us belong to other retailers that have related content."
For example, one of Junonia's best affiliate partners is
SydneysCloset.com, which features plus-size special occasion wear, such as prom dresses and wedding wear. The two sites are similar in that they appeal to customers of the same sizes, but they sell apparel for different occasions, so there is almost no direct competition for sales.
For the near future, Junonia
expects to see stronger sales growth in the next year than in the past year, as the economy continues to improve. While she declines to reveal specific numbers, Kelly says last year's growth was modest. "We're seeing a stronger economy this year, plus we've made some web site improvements that have worked well for us. I think we'll see a much better year this year," she adds.
The endless quest
In terms of changes, the list of things Kelly wants to do on the site is "endless," she says. "We could work 24 hours a day and still not do everything we want, so we'll just have to take it one step at a time."
For now, Kelly's top priorities include beefing up the web content so Junonia.com will show up more prominently in organic search results at Google and Yahoo and reworking the site's navigational tools to make it even easier for customers to find the exact outfits they are looking for.
But the company isn't expecting the new tools to be out of the ordinary. Rather, Kelly and Lindmeier are looking for innovation in how they're used. For instance, Junonia allows customers to reduce the
number of e-mails they receive without opting out all together. As another example, while most clothing
retailers allow online customers to shop by product category, Junonia allows them to shop by activity category. Rather than requesting to see shorts, shoes, tops or undergarments, as is common with other online clothing retailers, Junonia customers can ask to see clothing for bicycling, jogging or horseback riding. "Our technology is not unique," Lindmeier says. "But how we use it is."
Lauri Giesen is a Libertyville, Ill.-based freelance business writer.
