by Deborah Fulsang
Just imagine: Your 10-hour workday is done, the kids are in bed, and there you are, sipping a little Prosecco. Time for some pampering.
So you head to wayspa.com. It’s a site made for today’s time-strapped but luxury-loving consumer: a clearing house for spa services and specialty packages at 60 different locations in the Toronto and Vancouver areas (Victoria, Montreal and Ottawa are coming soon). And it takes credit cards.
It’s the FTD florist meets the Avon lady. But it’s not so retro-minded. Thanks to a flurry of sites such as WaySpa launched in the past year, the Canadian on-line shopping scene is finally getting fashion-forward.
That might be because, while Canadian households spend more than $3-billion annually on-line, the bulk of the shopping is done by women. According to Toronto-based Sequentia Communications, a boutique marketing communications firm specializing in women and technology, the favoured sites are shopping, home/family, health and beauty-related.
“Consumers initially shopped in categories that they were comfortable with: books, music, electronics. As they got more confident, they turned to fashion,” says Emmie Fukuchi, the general manager of http://www.yourshops.ca, a new on-line department store. She expects the apparel and accessories market to grow 50 per cent over the next few years, on-line commerce as a whole just 30 per cent.
Fukuchi’s own closet is about 50 per cent on-line acquired. “It’s so easy. You click and it arrives at your door. And you get access to brands you might not be able to get otherwise.”
The Internet has long worked for large companies such as Sephora — often dubbed the behemoth of beauty with its 250 different brands — as well as highly specialized and hard-to-find vendors. What’s unique is the appearance of sites that are like stores that carry a few designers: It’s the boutiquing of on-line shopping.
“We always say that design/style sites for women need to follow ‘the little black dress’ mantra,” explains Denise Shortt, vice-president of Sequentia Communications. “One size fits all.”
Toronto architect Lisa Pasternack recently launched mememe.ca, a virtual cosmetics store of a few lines that may sound familiar to the urban spa client (Cake Beauty, Principessa), but also some that are local and less widely available (Pinkie Sweat, SweetSpot Labs). “It’s more of a boutique than the department store feel of a Sephora,” Pasternack says.
Still, she tries to satisfy the Internet’s instant-gratification profile by offering three-to-five-day shipping for most orders.
Since time-savings and accessibility are two of the key reasons consumers choose on-line shopping, the virtual mall is on the horizon, Shortt says. A woman wants “the on-line shopping experience to mimic real-life shopping experience. She doesn’t have the time to go searching all over. Give her one-stop fashion options on one webpage.”
To wit, http://www.yourshops.ca. The site is a virtual portal to more than 40 popular North American retailers — from J.Crew to Crate&Barrel. The site’s advantage is that everyone clearly ships to Canada, and can be found grouped with similar lifestyle sellers. Even the once-ghastly Shopping Channel has been having an on-line makeover: theshoppingchannel.com now carries such fashion-savvy lines as (Canadian made) Heys Luggage and Smashbox cosmetics at a discount.
And before you log off, add inhouseproducts.com to your list of favourites. The Toronto-based company’s range of designs for the home is well edited. There are lovely items from around the globe, most notably sleek Georg Jensen ice tongs and a bold stainless steel outdoor fire pit. Of course, they’re not cheap — but this site is not all things to all people. That’s the beauty of Internet shopping.
