| Hudson Bay Buys Very Cool Brand — Gilt |
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By: Cindy Wendland |
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 Hudson Bay, which owns Lord & Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Saks Off Fifth, just made a deal to acquire flash site Gilt. Gilt offers 70% off of designer brands and insider access. Hudson Bay made this move to compete with Nordstrom’s acquisition of Haute Look.
Affluent Millennials are the people who primarily shop on Gilt. This is a good market segment to have. They have money, and they are young. The lifetime value of this type of customer is very high. To buy items from Gilt, you must be a member. Membership also keeps customers loyal. Members feel a part of the club and are more involved and responsive to marketing messages. In addition, 50% of Gilt shoppers shop from a mobile phone. They have continual access and are finding mobile access works for them.
Gilt also has that all-important sense of urgency. Limited quantities of items are available and they go quickly, so you have to pay attention and you have to be alert if you want to purchase some of the special deals.
Gilt also offers branding stories and advanced info on upcoming sales, important season pieces, and info on designers. Anyone interested in fashion will love this aspect of the site.
Gilt offers great merchandise at great prices to cool members. Hudson Bay expects to learn a lot from the customers who shop at Gilt to help with their brick-and-mortar stores. Seems like a good move.
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Cindy Wendland has a background in marketing and finance. She is the creative director for an online men's health magazine, BrainBrawnBody.com, and she gets to write their leisure/travel blog. She is also a web designer helping her clients with online community engagement, websitesbywendland.com. Prior to her web years, she worked in pharmacy consulting.
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