Since migrating to a new e-commerce platform from MarketLive late last year, fashion apparel retailer Intermix has grown its number of unique daily visitors fivefold to 5,000—more than half of them repeat customers, director of e-commerce Don McNichol tells InternetRetailer.com.
“Repeat web customers are now at 70%, way more than the 40-50% I had expected,” he says.
Visitors view on average 18 pages per visit. “I had hoped for six or seven,” McNichol says. The average visitor-to-purchase conversion rate is 2%, he adds.
Intermix has built a reputation for offering high-fashion apparel and accessories in a range of prices, making it easier for its typical buyers—young women—to afford a complete, coordinated outfit, McNichol says. “We mix price points for well-established designers and brands, so someone might by an $800 dress, a $100 pair of shoes and a $60 handbag,” he says.
Intermix has traditionally sold primarily through its stores, now numbering 13 and mostly in exclusive shopping areas in and around New York City. It plans to open another 4 to 5 stores within the next year in cities including Las Vegas, Dallas, Washington, D.C., and Chicago.
Because many of its store shoppers are on vacation or not always ready to buy a complete outfit, Intermix relies on its web site to offer a broader shopping experience, says McNichol, a former product marketing manager at Prodigy Internet. But Intermix’s former site didn’t support a strong multi-channel shopping experience through online merchandising, inventory status and customer service. “We spent a lot of time managing the first site, but customer service was lacking,” McNichol says.
The new MarketLive platform is designed with user-friendly tools that lets McNichol and his team of three constantly update merchandising pages without help from an IT department. “My merchandiser and designer can change anything daily,” he says. “We don’t need to know about site development. MarketLive hosts it and takes all the guesswork out of managing the site.”
The site platform also integrates with UPS for shipping status and it integrates with the retailer’s store POS and inventory management systems from KWI for updated inventory and sales records, McNichol says.
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