UK: Monsoon To Review E-Commerce Strategy

Fashion retailer, Monsoon, may temporarily pull out of Internet shopping if sales fail to improve over the festive season. The retailer says sales on its clothing website and its Accessorize site have so far been "disappointing". The Accessorize site was launched just before Christmas last year and the Monsoon site in April/May this year. Now the retailer is to review the performance of both sites in the New Year and take a decision from that point. Monsoon says there is no plan to get rid of the websites but they may be made "non-transactional" to reduce costs. Finance director, Andrew May, said no firm decisions have been made yet, but it is something that will be reviewed: "It may well be that we leave this market for a while but that doesn't mean to say we would not go back." He said the spread of the 140 Monsoon stores meant that it was not difficult for customers to get to a shop and the nature of the items at Accessorize often made home delivery uneconomical. Hayley Myers, a retail analyst with Retail Intelligence, said the unique texture and colour of Monsoon products was difficult to present on a website. She said: "Electronic shopping would be more useful for Monsoon as a marketing tool, providing another channel for customers to purchase. "Clothing itself is not the most appropriate to sell in this way unless you have a very distinct offer. Where you have styling, colour, and texture, it is difficult to sell over the Internet, but it can work in conjunction with other marketing tools."