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Lingerie is a “personal experience”. According to Sherry Gummow of Busted Ladies in Ponoka, AB, Canada, vendor links to her Facebook page have enabled her to attract niche customers that would never have known she could address their specific lingerie needs. Recently, a customer perusing the Goddess site found her Facebook link, called the store on a one bra inquiry, and subsequently came in. She walked out with four new bras and Sherry had a new fan.

Watch What Happens!
It is You Tube, however, that is in the near sight line of shrewd retailers. A perfect venue for presenting yourself to your customer and “selling” your expertise, videos become a cyberspace method of creating brand buzz. Imagine the power of a live bra fitting video being broadcast from your website. Last year more videos were uploaded to You Tube in 60 days than all three networks combined created in 60 years. Aline Machado of Bella Bella Boutique had her first You Tube slide show several years ago and garnered 2 million viewers selling out of every brand she highlighted.

The E-mail Connection
Second only to Facebook, all the stores interviewed feel the impact of email blasts on their business. Backed by Facebook mentions, these

Survival of the Fittest

notices carry information directed to a cultivated mailing list and linked with their Facebook pages. Email blasts are direct announcements whose immediate impact can be felt in volume spikes in the store. At the Best of Intima award-nominated store Adrienne Clarisse, in Libertyville, Illinois, creative e-mails are a weekly incentive tool creating store buzz. Single offers inevitably lead to multiple sales once the client is drawn in. Stores admit that social technology is and will continue to change the way they do business. Being smart about the potential of Social Media is essential to avoid being overwhelmed in this revolution that has ensnared us. For stores, the time required to be effective on Twitter is not reality. Still at the very least, they make sure that they are linked to Twitter on their web pages and email blasts. The theory is, the more the message is out there, the more customers they can reach.

THIS JOURNEY INTO CYBERSPACE IS A SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST CASE. THE CHALLENGE OF TIME AND Making a point that Social Media should be THE COST OF coordinated carefully with other methods of HIRING STAFF reaching out, Fran Dratch of Tulips Lingerie in DEDICATED Jenkinstown, Pennsylvania affirms “it is not the end all but part of the formula”. Fran cites TO THE “the slow slog” of building an online following CAUSE WILL and the necessity of keeping at it to succeed. BE THE It requires focused effort and successful stores MAJOR make the responsibility a priority. It’s a process of collecting email addresses, sending email OBSTACLE TO blasts, running traditional promotions and GETTING IT linking them with the store’s social media DONE.
pages. “It would be great to do it all, but it all comes down to budget. Being smart and strategic is critical to success.” Truth be told, this journey into cyberspace is a survival of the fittest case. The challenge of time and the cost of hiring staff dedicated to the cause will be the major obstacle to getting it done. The question is: Do you have a choice? I am pretty sure, the answer is no.

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THE BEST OF INTIMA – 02/2011

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