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THE VIRTUAL WORLD, Part 2: Supporting Online Apparel Sales
With NewRoads at the helm of their back-end solutions, Bluefly takes position in online apparel sales.
Were can you get a Fendi bag for 69.95 or a Burberry's tie for $59.95 or even an Armani suit for a mere $899.00? Not on Fifth Avenue and not in Bergdorf Goodman. No, for these prices you don't even have to leave your house. Simply log on to Bluefly.com. And now, with NewRoads as the company's third-party fulfillment provider, this e-tailer is riding high.
Since its inception in September 1998, Bluefly has positioned itself as the upscale fashion provider at discount prices, with a stable of designers whose clothing is more frequently, seen on the runways of Milan than online. A 90-day money-back guarantee and discounts of up to 75 percent are enticing its core audience - successful 30- to 35-year-old females - but men are flocking to it as well. "We're constantly expanding the brands we offer," says Pat Barry, CFO, Bluefly, noting that at any given time, 300 to 350 different brand offerings can be found on the company's site.
Laying the Groundwork
Prior to its partnership with NewRoads, the company had used two other fulfillment providers. "In the beginning when 10 orders was a good day for us, we were using smaller mom-and-pop type operations. [Those providers] were right for us at the time," notes Barry. But as the company grew, so did its need for a business process outsourcer that could keep up with its growth. "There were a lot of solutions popping up during the dotcom craze. We probably looked at 15 different companies, six or seven site visits and everybody from JCPenney, who's now out of the third-party logistics business, to Hanover Direct to NewRoads," says Barry.
Ultimately, NewRoads was selected based on its level of experience and depth of management. "When we looked at NewRoads, we found a company that's basically been doing it for quite some time. They understood apparel because they had other apparel clients and they understood direct-to-consumer fulfillment because their genesis came out of the catalog industry and that's basically what...