Monthly Archives: September 2012

Aritzia Begins Internet Retailing

Seeing the growing popularity of online shopping, Aritzia is finally diving into the world of internet retailing. The company has been successful in expanding geographically, it only makes sense that they take the next step to commence an online shopping site.

Aritzia’s target market is aimed at young adults and teenagers. They carry various designer brands but also produce their own brands as well.

Now that Aritzia is introducing their first online shopping site, they plan to differentiate themselves from other retail sites. They plan to provide detailed descriptions for the clothing items and reusable shipping boxes so that customers can return their items easily if not satisfied.

“We want our e-commerce site, like our stores, to be a place where the consumer likes to go both to shop and be inspired. …In some cases, they may go to the site with no intention of shopping but be inspired by an article to buy something.” (Brian Hill)

It seems that the internet retailing will work well for Aritzia, seeing as they have already built up customer loyalty. Their site will contain editorial content, which serves as a point of differentiation that sets them apart from other online retailers.

 

Aritzia fashionably late to Internet retailing-Marina Strauss

 

Nike’s Unethical Labor Practises

As one of the world’s largest athletic brand, Nike faces great criticism in regards to their use of labor sweatshops in Asia. The public was astounded by the allegations of physical and verbal abuse taking place in Nike’s sweatshops. It was found that up to 50% of the factories limited their employees’ bathroom and water usage. Employees were forced to work over sixty hours each week and were punished if they refused to work overtime. In these sweatshops, women are much underpaid, hardly enough to cover their basic living. Workers have claimed to be both verbally and physically abused by their employers. Although the use of sweatshops in Asia reduce production costs and enable companies to rake in a much greater revenue, the importance of morals and ethics still come into play. Being such a popular and well known brand, Nike has an image to uphold. Though Nike claims to put effort into resolving these issues of abuse among their factories, some are skeptical as to how dedicated Nike really is to put an end to the horrendous working conditions of their Asian factories.

Sources:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2005/apr/14/ethicalbusiness.money

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2014325/Nike-workers-kicked-slapped-verbally-abused-factories-making-Converse-line-Indonesia.html

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