Designers are finally discovering the web
Compared to other sectors in the Italian business world, the high fashion companies are showing a reluctance to go online. Aside from accessories, sportswear, and casuals, the leading fashion houses have made few inroads into e-commerce proper.
But all that could change soon. Many analysts see the year ahead as decisive as companies turn to the Internet to improve visibility and brand image. Already some of the big designers, who once snubbed the Internet, are exploring cyber strategies. Sites have been going up at a dizzying rate with top houses rushing to get their corporate messages onto the loop, as witnessed by the emergence of Gucci.com, Georgioarmani.com and the soon-to-go-live Gianniversace.com.
Yet, if the big names are building marketing web sites, true e-commerce remains in the future. It may be that the Internet is just too democratic for the top designers whose products, they say, are unique. Houses like Gucci and Prada insist their products are different from the likes of New York's Ralph Lauren, which sells to the mass market through big retail chains.
Gucci has long fought to keep its brand name under house control and is not keen on franchising through the Internet. The Florence-based house has said it is currently developing its strategy in the sector and at present has no plans to sell its products online. Interestingly enough, however, it has an e-business department at its offices in New York.
Of the leading houses, Giorgio Armani has no plans as yet to launch into the Internet, except for distribution of a jeans line in the US, while Gianni Versace is selling accessories on the Luxlook.com site but is not contemplating an e-commerce outlet for its collections.
Many think Italy has been slow compared to the aggressive strategy of France's luxury baron Bernard Arnault, whose firm LVMH has launched a luxury goods portal, Luxory.com, for sales to the United States. The venture includes Italian luxury group Bulgari as well as other accessory products from selected Italian houses. Arnault is also set to create Italy's first "cyber brand" by puffing Pucci fashion, which it acquired earlier this year, on eluxury.com by mid-October.
But if the world of high fashion has reservations, some of the less upmarket companies are making moves. Earlier this year the Burani group, makers of the Mariella Burani line, took control of an Italian Internet service provider with the aim of creating a fashion portal to sell not only its own products on-line but to provide access for smaller fashion companies to profitable foreign markets.
Last year, Benetton launched an e-commerce project that will see the creation of a portal by the end of 2000 to sell its clothing collections and sportswear range as well as provide more general information and services on things like music and travel. The group will be looking for foreign partners and will probably join with America's Andersen Consulting.
Ittierre, the group that owns Dolce & Gabbana, is working on a project that in just a few months it expects will generate e-business worth some 20-30 percent of traditional turnover. The project, designed to meet the increasing internationalization of the business, will be realized with Telecom Italia's online unit Tin.it and is expected to get underway within the year.
Stefanel has chosen venture capital firm Pino Venture as partner for its e-plans and hopes that other groups in the sector will come onboard to share the benefits. The company intends to pursue both business-to-business and business-to-consumer trade. However, despite its appetite for the web, Stefanel says bricks-and-mortar outlets will remain the focus of its business with the Internet simply boosting traditional sales.
Although late, Italian fashion is slowly but surely waking up to the Internet's potential The Finpart holding group, which recently took its shops into the US, is set to launch a pilot project that at first will put only its Frette brand on-line but will eventually market its other brands such as Henry Cotton's, Moncler, and Maska.
Times are changing. Just how long the Italian fashion gurus can afford to stay out of the loop is a moot question.
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