Victoria’s Secret is an American retailer of high quality lingerie and beauty products. It is the largest brand and a segment of publicly traded Limited Brands with sales surpassing $5 billion and an operating income of US$1 billion in 2006. Victoria’s Secret is well known for its fashion shows and catalogues.Victoria’s Secret was rapidly expanded into the America’s malls throughout the 1980s. The company was able to vend a widened range of products such as shoes, evening wear, perfumes among others with its mail catalog issued eight times annually. By the early 1990s, Victoria’s Secret had become the largest American lingerie retailer topping the billion dollar mark.
Marketing Strategy / Purposes
Victoria’s secret is a specialty retailer of women’s intimate apparel. It has about 1,000 Victoria’s Secret lingerie stores and 100 stand-alone Victoria’s Secret Beauty Stores in the US, mostly mall-based.Victoria’s Secret mails more than 400 million of its catalogs per year. Victoria’s Secret has since extended their brand to the Internet and provided a new channel for domestic and international customers. Their target audience: women shopping for themselves and men shopping for gifts. Victoria’s Secret sure knows their market. Needless to say, the site has been extremely successful; the day it launched, orders came in from 37 countries and it currently draws orders from more than 90. And since it’s updated every three to four weeks, anxious shoppers no longer have to wait for the latest catalog.
Features
Payment Scheme
- Victoria’s Secret Angel Credit Card
- American Express
- Discover Network
- JCB
- Mastercard
So as to avail the website to a larger demographic, Victoria’s Secrets could employ people in their home countries to translate the website and convert the currency to their own.
Strengths:
1. Supply of Information
Comprehensive information is given, providing the security customer’s need to feel when they are purchasing products online.
2. Extensive categorization
This enables customers to quickly narrow down their selection according to their wants and needs.
3. Stylish and appealing advertisement on the homepage.
4. A separate link for sales and specials
This would be appreciated by customers on a budget and so that customers don’t have to search for them one by one.
5. Appealing interface.
- Soothing pink base colour that is desirable to women; matching colours for words that makes it look pleasing to the eye.
- Simple, easy-to-use layout – all categories are listed on the homepage which, when clicked, display sub-categories which make locating your choice product easier.
- Images on the homepage makes it look interesting and shows the customers new items and offers without having to click further.
1. Due to the constraints of technology and limitations of certain browsers, products shown on the Internet may differ in colour and/or design from the actual product itself
2. Customers don’t get to have a feel of the product as they do in a regular brick-and-mortar store.
3. The performance of the website could be slowed considerably by the numerous graphic content.
4. Although they ship internationally, the website is only available in English. The stated price is only shown in US dollars.
Special Highlights:
- An email service is provided to keep customers up-to-date on the latest promotions.
- Quick search bar to aid customers in locating the item they need in one click.
