American Eagle takes flight with new web brands and aspirations

American Eagle Outfitters Inc. will use a combination of new e-commerce brands and more advanced features to double online sales over the next several years, says chief marketing officer Kathy Savitt.

In 2007, e-commerce was the fastest growing sales channel for American Eagle, No. 59 in the . In 2007, American Eagle posted web sales of $240 million, an increase of 30% from online sales of $184.6 million in 2006. In comparison, total sales rose by 9.3% to $3.055 billion while comparable store sales rose by 1%. In 2007, the web represented 8% of all revenue, but accounted for 21% of growth.

“We are reaching a critical mass on the web and expect to achieve $500 million in web sales within several years,” Savitt tells Internet Retailer. “It’s one of our stated objectives.”

The growth will come from two new web sites American Eagle will launch by December and through the addition of more sophisticated web applications. In March, American Eagle launched MartinandOsa.com, an apparel site that targets men and women ages 28 to 40. The retailer will follow up MartinandOsa.com with the debut of 77kids.com, an e-commerce site with clothing targeting children ages 2 through 10. That site will debut in October, in advance of the holiday season.

Advanced features, especially tools that personalize the shopping experience, will be a key part of the launch process, Savitt says. MartinandOsa.com features a shop by outfit video program that shows models moving about in certain fashions as in a fashion show. The shop by outfit program also lets a shopper click through the video, see and select accessories and then proceed directly to the check-out. Eventually the shop by outfit feature and a layer your own look program - an advanced rich media program that enables shoppers to assemble outfits in three dimensions and save them to their wish list - will be rolled out to other e-commerce sites, including flagship site AE.com.

“Better web technology puts the customer front and center and makes the shopping experience easier,” says Savitt.
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