Has Net-A-Porter Met Its Match?
Designer fashion retail chain Matches has made its first foray in to the online market with a brand new bespoke e-shop. Destined to take on the likes of Net-a-Porter and Browns in this ultra competitive market, early indications are extremely positive for a very bright future.
(PRWEB) September 30, 2006 -- When in need of some serious retail therapy, West London’s fashion conscious shoppers have been heading to one of Matches’ designer boutiques for the last 17 years. Over this time the company has grown from a single shop in Wimbledon Village to a chain of eleven stores, located throughout Notting Hill, Wimbledon and Richmond.
Never a company to sit on its laurels the Matches story now continues with a move online to challenge that giant of internet designer retailing, Net-a-Porter. With a turn over in excess of £18 million last year from over 75 000 transactions this is no small undertaking. Matches realised, to compete in such a rarefied online environment they would need an exceptional website, which not only represented the brand and image of the existing stores but also replicated the exceptional service which is the cornerstone of the Matches business.
Pod1 was enlisted to design, develop and build a fully integrated e-commerce system which would successfully translate the offline brand and image of the stores into a slick upmarket online offering. The site showcases cutting edge designer collections from the likes of Bella Freud, Christian Louboutin, Diane Von Furstenberg, Gharani Strok, Marc Jacobs and Prada, all presented with exceptional attention to detail to recreate a true boutique feel.
Divided into three distinct sections, the site comprises the online shop, the look book and the catwalk and gives customers various options on how they browse the collections. The online shop provides customers with the more classic shopping approach where customers can browse by item or designer, the Look Book showcases every must have item each season and gives the user the option of browsing by category or designer with links which take you direct to the e-shop. The catwalk section contains videos of all the latest fashion shows and collections and, like the Look Book, has the option to take you straight to the shop, so you can literally buy clothes straight from the catwalk!
Matches aims to go head to head with some of the biggest names in online designer retail as well as net-a-porter they will also be challenging brownsfashion.com and shopbop.com for market share. With the site already over delivering on its promise and initial traffic and sales figures far exceeding expectation, it now only remains to be seen if Net-a-Porter and the rest really have met their Match!
Visit Matches at www.matchesfashion.com
Visit Pod1 at www.pod1.com
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