Australian fashion retailer Forever New is using New Zealand as a testing ground for its latest e-commerce offerings designed to draw shoppers into its stores.
New Zealand will be one of the first markets where it rolls out its 'reserve in-store', 'endless aisle' and appointment booking features to its website.
Reserve in-store will allow online shoppers to select and put aside a product and size in their nearest store to be tried on within 48 hours.
Endless aisle, which will enable customers to order items from any store and have it delivered to their door, will launch this month, and the other two later this year.
From there, the retailer plans to access how each feature fares with local consumers and roll them out to Australia and its other markets.
Forever New chief executive Dipendra Goenka said the retailer was using New Zealand to test the technology before activating it in other market domains.
"We're trying to enhance the shopping experience," Goenka said. "People can come in, try it on and buy it.
"The main purpose for us is ease of shopping for our customer; be it online or be it in stores."
Goenka said New Zealand was an important market for Forever New - though vastly different to its domestic Australian market.
"New Zealand has a longer winter and a shorter summer so that creates a little bit of a challenge for us. We've been here for almost eight years now and understand the market much better [now]."
Kiwi shoppers are more considered when making purchases compared to Australians, he said.
"With the online growth worldwide it's important that we give the customer flexibility," he said. "Retailers or e-tailers who make it easy will succeed."
Forever New was founded by Goenka in Melbourne in 2006, when he saw a gap in the market for women's occasion wear. The retailer is now co-owned by Tom Singh, who founded UK fashion giant New Look, and Goenka.
The first Forever New store opened in New Zealand in 2010. There are now eight stores in total. Forever New's Auckland Sylvia Park store is it highest-performing store, and the retailer has a distribution centre close to Auckland Airport.
Goenka said Forever New would look to secure a retail site in the $790m Westfield Newmarket development which is scheduled to open at the end of next year.
"If we get the right site and it makes sense for us we'll definitely be in Newmarket."
Online shopping accounts for eight per cent of all retail sales in New Zealand. It is estimated e-commerce will make up 13 per cent of all spending by 2030.
Goenka said it was crucial for clothing and apparel retailers to have a bricks and mortar store presence despite the uptake in e-commerce.
E-commerce makes up for 8 per cent of all retail sales. Photo / 123RF
"Everyone's talking about omnichannel retailing - it's so important, it's not just the online store now or the bricks and mortar store - it's the combined effect, and how you can utilise both," he said. "Five years ago it was all about just opening stores.
"Today, you cannot have a business today without an online offering. You cannot just have a business online, you cannot just have a business of bricks and mortar."
Retail analyst Chris Wilkinson said online was an essential part of retail success but many brands found it "hard to identify how many of their 'walk-in' customers shopping journeys began on the internet".
"The move is a lateral one for Forever New and relatively simple to implement. It's likely other retailers will follow quickly - similar to how additional purchasing methods - such as Laybuy have now become commonplace," Wilkinson said.
"This strategy will give some clarity to the numbers and behaviour of shoppers - helping better shape future marketing and ranging decisions."
Wilkinson said New Look was an expert in e-commerce and it was likely Forever New had implemented similar online strategies given its ownership ties.
