Arcadia online – all under one roof?

Lots of brands under one roof works wonders online, so could Arcadia one day follow suit with its brands available from one digital offering?

Customers shopping at Oxford Street’s Topshop enjoy being able to flit between the store and the adjoining Miss Selfridge, with the option to pay for items at either shop.

Is it now time for Arcadia to allow online shoppers to browse and buy their brands in one place à la Outfit?

ASOS’s Nick Robertson has said in the past that online customers shop at fewer stores, and that online fashion would ultimately be “dominated by a smaller number of much bigger players” – not exactly music to many online independent retailers, but he could have a point.

Although I think it’s still relatively too early to truly understand the pattern of the market, if we look back at retail history there is a type of customer who wants to see the brands they like in one place – hence the popularity of department stores.

OK, so unlike department stores the stock choice wouldn’t be edited, but of course shoppers can become the editors themselves by using the taxonomy search to narrow down to what they like.

We’ve already seen an explosion in aggregators such as ShopStyle and proof that the model works courtesy of eBay, but now could be a good time for bricks and mortar stores to take advantage of this revenue model using the power of their positions on the high street.

Independent retailers, brands and consumers will soon have the ability to trade through ASOS’s Marketplace, where they can retail to the online fashion superpower’s visitors.

If Arcadia were to create a single online retail space, it would be in an enviable position to create a c2c selling channel, using their store network to not only promote, but majorly enhance any service offering.

See where browsing multiple stores in one place fits inthe online fashion brand lifecycleon my websitewww.leonbaileygreen.com