Rue La La Claims 13% of Revenue Comes through mCommerce

Rue La La is basically a Gilt Groupe competitor. Different business model entirely, but still relevant to PacSun and more evidence supporting the value of mobile commerce.

Read more here.

Mobile to Drive More In-Store Purchases than Actual Salespeople During Holidays

More reason for PacSun to invest in mobile in 2011.

We've long known consumers' trust in online reviews and peer recommendations is at an all-time high. As the adoption rate for more powerful web-capable mobile devices like smartphones and iPads, increases, consumers will only rely more heavily on online sources for recommendations.

According to an Ogilvy executive recently said during a Mobile Marketing Webinar, "Mobile will drive more sales in-store than actual salespeople this holiday season as consumers turn to the mobile Web and applications to research products, read reviews and compare prices..."

Some impressive numbers from Steve Madden: "... more than 10.5 percent of his company's total Web traffic is coming from mobile devices, representing 250 percent growth over the past six months.

The footwear brand sold 7,856 products in that time frame via mobile, generating $520,866 revenue, with an average order price of $83.70."

Read the rest here - some good info about SMS, mobile sites, and apps as well.

The PacSun Snow Shop

Mystery solved. PacSun does carry snow but their shred shop is primarily online only, esp. for performance gear. That said, it looks like key "teaser" pieces (e.g., Burton powder pants) are available in store to put them in the game. Prices range from $20 hats to $200+ jackets. All in all, it's really cute stuff though I wish they'd integrated some apres-ski looks. Interesting note: you cannot link directly from Guy's Snow to Girl's Snow.

Wet Seal shows model behavior in social

Wet Seal had great success growing and activating their community this year. Their recent model search generated 300,000 YouTube views, 10 million Facebook fan posts, 100,000 new Facebook fans and 100,000 store visits. As with any effort to marry social media with business, it started with a simple question:

“What am I going to do to really allow [consumers] to participate in my brand? If you can answer that question, then you can structure a completely great social media program,” CTO Kubo said. “The second phase is then, ‘I have to figure out the engagement.’”

Kubo described the model search as “an ‘American Idol’ kind of campaign.” The company ran video teasers from last year’s winners on its Facebook page and asked applicants to fill out an online form and then bring a photo to a Wet Seal store. One-hundred applicants were sent Flip video cameras, which they used to take videos of themselves to post on YouTube. The 100 were then winnowed down to 50 on the basis of YouTube views. Finally, people voted for their favorite on Facebook, with every vote generating a post.

The good news is that big-time engagement doesn’t need to cost big bucks. “This was run by a very junior manager all by herself, and all the prizes, all the travel were sponsored,” Kubo said. “We spent a ridiculously small amount of money on this.”

"Live In These Jeans" Campaign

This summer, AE started the "Live in these jeans" campaign, complete with facebook-posted video and jeans giveaway sweepstakes. I think they made an interesting video depicting their vision of AE values and young lifestyle personality. I think PacSun will have a lot more to offer than people falling though the air and girls posing on male models, but it's a little food for thought.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=823035049143

Style advice from The Situation: Be you

"No matter what T-shirt you select, whether it’s fitted, graphic, sequined, bedazzled, crew-neck, deep-V, wifebeater, or what-have-you, it’s about being proud of who you are. If you want to bust out a deep-V that’s safety-cone orange because you think that’s your color, then wear the hell out of that fruity shirt so everybody in the club knows that nobody owns it like you do. Set the trends, don’t follow them. I wear what makes me feel good because I’m at the tip of the spear—the cutting edge of fashion that’s fresh to death. When I see something I like, I grab it. My only system when I shop for fresh apparel is my own primal reaction to what I see, the moment I see it. When I enter a store, I trust my eye to zero in on what’s mint. That’s the single most effective system I have for knowing when to pull the trigger on a purchase. If I find myself hemming and hawing, that’s a clear indication that the garment in question is not destined to make my rotation. I walk away from the rack because I’ve failed to make a connection to those threads. On the other hand, if I know from the moment I see it that that particular piece is going to make me look awesome, I trust my instinct completely and it comes home with The Sitch." - from his new book

How-To Branded "Viral"

Yes, that's the correct term nowadays, isn't it? " "Viral" "? Not that there's a checklist for how to make branded video that people love and rapidly share, but if there were... it might look something like these keen recommendations from Mashable.

Read in the spirit of having fun and getting the most, for the least.

Slouch in Trends

A surprising look (based on your fashion background) that's creeping up is, according to All The Rage blog on LAtimes.com, sweats. The comfortable and sporty look is being compared to velour and terrycloth leisure suits of ole. You can expect the new look to feature tailored fitting, drop crotch, drawstring waist, and slim ankle opening. Celebs like Gwen Stefani are rocking them and the style can be seen on the runway. Something tells me this one's gonna be popular with the kids.

Brands Are Part of Millennials' Core Values

Earlier in our branding exploration we were tossing around the importance of creating a PacSun initiative that our Millennial customers could get behind. While we haven't acted on it yet, Edleman recently published a study indicating that "taking action on behalf of brands" is part of Millennials' (born 1980-1995) core values. "Taking action" includes sharing brand experiences with others, joining online communities, and posting reviews online. According to the study, more than 8 in 10 have acted on behalf of a brand they support. Here are the study's key findings:

Brand relationships are a form of self expression: Brand preference ranks with religion and ethnicity as top personal identifiers that 8095ers are willing to share about themselves online.

Information is a key to influence: In addition to 8095ers that use four or more sources of information to help them make brand purchase decisions, thirty-one percent use seven or more sources of information.

Taking action on behalf of brands is a core value: Fifty-seven percent of 8095ers would volunteer to try new products from a preferred brand and most would post an online review of the experience.

Reverberation is online, offline and increasingly mobile: For those brands that Millennials love, 68 percent have recommended their products to friends and family and 44 percent have friended/followed that brand on their social network

• 
  

I wonder, in the ever-evolving brandscape, what acting in support of a brand can mean in a myriad of ways. What about sponsor or partnerships? For example, I love Tour de Fat, I've been in San Francisco, I'll go in LA. I love bikes and I love festivals. But, as the Tour is sponsored and promoted by New Belgium, does it also mean that I'm acting on behalf of the brand? How conscious of our "brand actions" do we need to be in order for it to count in a study? Does it help or hurt the brand when people are lured to support something they're not aware of? Well, I don't think Edleman answers these questions, but there's more information about the study here.

Happy ponderings!

PacSun now available globally!

PacSun is now available ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD thanks to a partnership with a new, Israeli-based company called FiftyOne. While US culture, brands and entertainment have been exported to the four corners of the world, until recently, American retailers have had a hard time exporting their wares - despite the longing by tens of millions of people to shop the websites of American retail legends like Bloomingdales, Macy's, the Gap, and many others. FiftyOne, which enables online sales of US retailers, is a way to get around this. PacSun's international Facebook fans can finally rejoice!

What the Kids are wearing

Some street style from BTS fashion at USC courtesy of the LA Times Image Section.

Prices SLASHED.

Upper-end retailers are cutting prices wayyy back this holiday season to create what they call "trip-driving items", purchases that will get people out of the house and into the mall. Some popular sale trends are "bogo", 40-80% additionally marked down from sale prices, changing bargains throughout the day and additional 20% off your purchase of $2,000+ [Macy's].

Despite these outrageous sales, retailers are still focusing attention on their seasonal campaigns promoting specific brands or products. Here's the full article from the New York Times.

Burbank Fashion

Apparently downtown Burbank is a place we need to scope when rounding up our style icons.

Here are some street style photos from Brand X.

Lessons in Logo Redesign

Though The Gap is not a direct PacSun competitor, this whole logo redesign debacle is worth watching closely. People are LIVID.

In a nutshell:

The Gap redesigned their classic blue box and serif logo. It now looks like American Apparel and looks like a 10-year old did it in about 8 minutes. In response, Gap's President issued a rather unenthusiastic statement explaining the redesign and standing by the new logo, but acknowledged that they need to foster this energy and engage in dialog with their consumers by offering a chance for consumers' to submit designs. At the outset, that seemed like a "save," but it seems to be backfiring. On their Facebook Page, hundreds of designers are expressing their outrage over this crowdsourcing experiment calling it "spec work" and lazy.

Watching this unfold will be amazing. One for the history books, no doubt.

Read all about it:

From Fast Company: Gap's Retro Redesign Incites Flaming Logo Rage
From AdAge: Gap Introduces New Logo, Mass Criticism Ensues

Sooooooo....

Lesson #1: Don't let your 10-year old redesign your logo in Microsoft Word.
Lesson #2: When the entire design community and consumers at-large erupt in outrage, don't try to turn it into some crowdsourcing experiment.

The Buckle Net Sales Jump 8.7% in September

While we've established that PacSun doesn't really consider The Buckle a primary competitor, they're doing something right. While net sales improved by 8.7% in September, comp store sales grew 3.0%. They're also up 1.5% in the first 35 weeks of the year.

The Buckle Net Sales Jump 8.7% in September

The Perfect PacSun Summer Day...

On a beautiful summer afternoon, this is where we would find the PacSun "Action Sports Guy" and "Cali Girl." To them, action sports aren't about performances; they're just an organic part of the Left Coast lifestyle. This is the equivalent of east coast kids playing pick up basketball or street hockey.

Have I ever mentioned...

...that Forever21 has a wide range of Jesus wear?

Left Coast Feelin

I was perusing one of our office issues of Spread, Art and Culture magazine for some Left Coast inspiration and, lo and behold, found it in this great photography. The images all share a sense of present, a lack of fear, and that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when something special is about to happen, like Christmas morning when you were 5 years old.

The first three are images are from the series called "Lakes" by Michael Schnabel, a photographer well known for landscape. I love the intrigue, exploration, but at the same time, familiarity.

This night-to-day photography by Stephen Wilkes also blew my mind. I find it representative of youthful confidence, ownership. The city is your playground, both day and night.

And this last one, well it's just beautiful. (Matthew Monteith)

Malcolm Gladwell on the social media revolution

Not tied to retail per se, but...please, please read Malcolm Gladwell's recent New Yorker article on how a well informed and structured group can be much more effective at creating change than even a network of people who outnumber them by ten fold. It’s a social media critique on the age old question of, which is more important, “quality or quantity?”.