YOOX designs a new web strategy

Though it’s been selling online to American web shoppers since late 2003, next year will be the big year of change for YOOX Corp. in the U.S.

YOOX, which ranks No. 122 in the Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide to Retail Web Sites, plans on establishing a U.S. headquarters, employing a U.S. management team, seeking merchandising relationships with more designers and creating additional brand awareness in the online apparel space.

YOOX, an online retailer of designer apparel, sells in more than 20 different markets, including the U.S. But the U.S. is the company’s fastest-growing market with online sales expected to double in 2005, says YOOX CEO Federico Marchetti. “U.S. shoppers have the highest average order value,” he says. “They typically spend about $250.”

When YOOX began selling online in the U.S. it found the barriers to entry lower because the web retailer had established e-commerce and distributions operations in Europe and elsewhere it could use to quickly develop new international web sites. For instance, YOOX processes and fill all U.S. orders through its European fulfillment center and then ships the final order to an East Coast warehouse for a final check and distribution.

But as YOOX looks to become more of an established U.S. web retailer, the company wants to add more domestic products to its online inventory of more than 50,000 SKUs and 300 designer brands. In each of its international markets, YOOX likes to search and find up-and-coming designers, who in turn can design exclusive collections for YOOX’s various e-commerce markets. In Paris, YOOX has a new relationship with designer Bernhard Willhelm and similar arrangements with designers Alexander Herchcovitch in Brazil and Hamish Morrow in the United Kingdom.

In 2006, YOOX will expand its e-commerce management team and look for similar relationships with designers and brands that can help YOOX build a bigger customer base, particularly among fashion-conscious online apparel shoppers. “Our main priority in the U.S. is finding good people who think out of the box,” Marchetti says. “We also want to build more local partnerships.”