Guess Jeans E-Commerce Essay, Research Paper

Guess ?, Inc. designs, markets, and distributes clothing apparel and accessories for men and women. It was created by three brothers, known as the Marciano brothers who grew up in Southern France. Maurice Marciano oversees the company’s design direction, Paul Marciano is the Co-Chairman and Co-chief officer, and Armand Marciano is the Senior Executive Vice President . They were inspired by the American western tradition to begin the clothing designs of Guess ?. After Bloomingdale’s agreed to purchase two dozen of their jeans as a favor they were sold out with in hours. That’s when, in 1981, the official Guess ? label was born, and would become one of the most recognized brand names.

Guess ? uses historical trends within the market to develop a sales plan for designs and as a guide to the number of sales per garmet. With the sales plan in mind they seek out the best quality product at the best possible price. Once the materials are gathered the cost of the item is determined. Including manufacturing labor, fabric, trims, and various other details included in the production of the clothing a rough cost is agreed upon. After the cost is found Guess ? then determines on a style merchandising cost, which is based on raising or lowering prices to maximize sales and profits.

As of today Guess ? has product licenses all over the world. Also it has distributors in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Guess ? can be found in many department, retail, specialty, and factory stores and as of January 1995 online.

Guess’s ? online store is created in Los Angeles, were its E-Commerce department is located. Their responsibility is to create texts, graphics, researches of new technologies, and track online sales. The Guess?.Com website is updated every two to three months so the most accurate information is always available to consumers.

On the Guess ? website they support electronic security clearly stated at the bottom of the page. They have security measures set up to protect the consumer from any loss or misuse of information under their control. Credit card information and sign-in passwords are always stored in an unreadable, encrypted format. Also, the site is protected by a multi-layer firewall based security system. So any consumer information personal or not is well protected.

Guess ? also offers the option if an item is bought online to return it to any one of their retail stores. If you decide to ship it back to the company they will pay shipping on returned packages. You can even e-mail Guess ? at their e-commerce returns address if you have any further questions or problems, it’s guaranteed they’ll get back to you with in twenty-four hours after receiving it.

At the end of each season an analysis is performed to measure the success of Guess’s ? online store. Afterwards it’s then evaluated and improvements are made for future developments. This is not only done for Guess’s web site, but for other types of media buys they advertise in for example magazines, billboards, and bus sides. This ensures that all information is utilized for use at a later date to increase cash flow.

Guess ? has 43.5 million shares of common stock as of November 6, 2000. Prices ranging from $21.06 to $27.31 per share For the nine months that ended September 30, 2000 Guess’s ? revenues rose 44 percent to $582.9 million dollars. Their net income has increased by 1 percent to $33.2 million dollars in the nine months. As businesses usually break even or lose money from their online stores Guess ? has managed to increase their earnings.

In the future Guess ? will most likely be as successful as it was for the last twenty years if not more. With new retail stores opening quiet frequently and an online store now available it’s making it more convenient for the consumer to purchase Guess ?. The more secure the purchasers of Guess ? feel the greater the likelihood their online store will bring in more business as long as their quality assurance remains the same. Overall businesses in ten years that have online stores will probably be the ones that bring in the most profit, have more sales, and are the most successful, since more than half of all transactions will probably take place over the web.

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