Patagonia.com expands overseas
Patagonia Inc. will expand its e-commerce operations next year to include at least one European county and possibly as many as three more. Patagonia, which has been selling online in the U.S. since 1995 and in Japan since 2000, already has a small base of stores and catalog operations in France, Germany, Ireland and Italy.
Beginning next March, Patagonia, which ranks No. 205 in the Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide to Retail Web Sites, will offer European shoppers an online shopping channel.
All online marketing and merchandising will be coordinated through Patagonia’s U.S. operation in Ventura, CA, but the company, which sells outdoor clothing, gear, accessories and luggage under the Patagonia, Lotus Designs and Water Girl brands, will outsource call center and fulfillment services to a third-party provider in each European country. Those service companies have yet to be selected.
“We are still looking at which country is most suitable for the first launch,” says Craig Wilson, director of global e-media. “Eventually we will have a site for each of the four markets we are currently in.”
Patagonia, which also expects to begin online order processing in Canada later this year, is adding more web stores in new overseas markets after a year-long review of its multi-channel operations. “We are trying to improve our synergy across channels and it makes sense to offer customers more e-commerce options in European countries where we have a presence,” Wilson says.
To expedite its international expansion, Patagonia is updating its e-commerce platform, Wilson says. In 2003, Patagonia implemented a site search program from Endeca Technologies Inc. Now Patagonia is looking to improve its content management applications and further integrate its various product and marketing information databases, Wilson says. By adding page templates and better content management applications, Patagonia, which carries an online inventory of about 400 products, will make it easier for marketing managers in other countries to make changes to web stores using a universal platform, Wilson says.
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