LB is trying to grow international. They just opened their first flagship store in China
http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/a...land-women
How many brand can you name when you think of lingerie? The best way is to compare it with APPLE. Do apple investors panic when dozens of companies come up with android phone with bigger screen and faster processor at significantly cheaper price? I'm not worry about amazon making underwear, they make decent/good product at cheap prices and margins are low - same with cheap android phones. You want to stick to "high end" (brand perception) products with high margins. That's where the money is. There is a limit on how much damage amazon can do - see BestBuy.
Half the world's population is women and these products are not exactly 'perishable' but they don't exactly last forever either so repeated purchases. VS doesn't need to own large market share, they just need to dominate the high end market around the world.
Victoria's Secret is synonym with 'sexy' and Sex Sells! When do people ever get tired of sex
Edit: The industry is going through the "online" shift and I don't thin it's a zero sum game. It's bigger problem for middleman like macy and target but not so much for companies who make their own products. The thing about technology is that eventually everybody catch up especially when online selling is not a rocket science and is a dime a dozens. Having a physical store foot print can actually give you advantage. I believe LB can survive this shift and make a come back.
http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/a...land-women
How many brand can you name when you think of lingerie? The best way is to compare it with APPLE. Do apple investors panic when dozens of companies come up with android phone with bigger screen and faster processor at significantly cheaper price? I'm not worry about amazon making underwear, they make decent/good product at cheap prices and margins are low - same with cheap android phones. You want to stick to "high end" (brand perception) products with high margins. That's where the money is. There is a limit on how much damage amazon can do - see BestBuy.
Half the world's population is women and these products are not exactly 'perishable' but they don't exactly last forever either so repeated purchases. VS doesn't need to own large market share, they just need to dominate the high end market around the world.
Victoria's Secret is synonym with 'sexy' and Sex Sells! When do people ever get tired of sex
Edit: The industry is going through the "online" shift and I don't thin it's a zero sum game. It's bigger problem for middleman like macy and target but not so much for companies who make their own products. The thing about technology is that eventually everybody catch up especially when online selling is not a rocket science and is a dime a dozens. Having a physical store foot print can actually give you advantage. I believe LB can survive this shift and make a come back.