eBay let slip to several fashion magazines (WWD - subscription required) and Racked (click here) that they are going to launch the eBay Fashion Outlet in time for Q4 2011 on Sept 9.
At ChannelAdvisor, we work very closely with most of the brands in the UK/DE version of the store so we're pretty excited to see this program come to the US. In this post, I will highlight what has been announced about the US store and then give you some details of the UK store which the US store will probably closely resemble. As normal, ChannelAdvisor will 100% support the fashion store when it launches 9/19 and we're powering many of the launch brands. In fact in the UK recently we announced a suite of specialized offerings to help brands ramp up on EFO.
What are the details of the US eBay Fashion Outlet?
The article mentions these anchor tenants out of 20:
- Neiman Marcus - Last Call
- William Rast
- Spanx
- Fila
- Timberland
- Brooks bros
- Custo Barcelona
- Bluefly
There will be a big focus on denim and the site will target women 25-44 and offer 20-60% off.
"eBay offers us more innovation, more marketing and a different, bigger customer base," Ann Paolini, senior vice president and managing director of Neiman Marcus Last Call
What does it mean?
At ChannelAdvisor, our UK+DE folks work with many of the eBay fashion outlet sellers to help them connect their corporate systems to eBay and other channels.
The program is very popular with retailers that are looking to get more sales for their outlet goods. Of course, consumers love the convenience and access to top brands at big discounts. The only unhappy constituent in the eBay ecosystem is the smaller apparel seller that can see a very big competitor suddenly enter the marketplace.
A tour of the eBay Fashion Outlet
While they haven't disclosed the US look-and-feel, in the UK/DE they have a couple of interesting aspects to the program.