Richard James expands reach with global ecommerce store

Savile Row tailor Richard James opened its first ecommerce store last week that offers an array of apparel and accessories just in time for holiday gift-giving.

Global consumers can now shop the tailor’s leather goods, accessories and apparel from their desktops. The clean-cut, easy-to-navigate site will likely prove effective in increasing end-of-year sales for Richard James.

“I think the site has all the essential pillars of content [that] a well-thought-out brand needs to represent itself online,” said Catherine McLean, head of creative at Pod1, New York.

“It's clear how to navigate around the site and the extended footer is not only a helpful tool, but also a great added value from an search engine optimization point-of-view,” she said.

Ms. McLean is not affiliated with Richard James, but agreed to comment as a third-party expert.

Richard James was not able to comment before press deadline.

All wrapped up
The new Web site features a horizontal top navigation pane and a prominent right-hand corner search box.

The tabs include shop, seasonal look book, bespoke tailoring, about us, the row blog, locations and media.

Returning customers can also log-in to their accounts through an option in the top right-hand corner.

When consumers click through the shopping tab, they are met with a menu that uses alphabetized, icon-sized images to represent product sections.

The shoppable products from Richard James include belts, gloves, hats, knitwear, leather goods, RJ Casual, scarves, pocket squares, shirts, shoes, socks and ties.

Once inside a particular section, a consumer can filter the products by size, color, occasion and price.

Individual product pages are equally easy-to-navigate.

The split-screen page format features a large product picture on the left-hand side that contains sharing option icons and alternate views.

The right-hand side features extendable categories including description, delivery and returns, size chart and size and quantity selection. Consumers can add the product to a wish list, recommend it to friends or add to bag.

“In this world of short attention spans where any distraction could result in the loss of a sale, I think the product detail page is working hard to keep the customer focused,” Ms. McLean said.

“The filter options are also a nice way of allowing customers to shop by a specific attribute with is a helpful tool for the shopper who knows exactly what they want,” she said.

In tune
In addition to the ecommerce store, the Web site features content to engage consumers and teach them about the brand.

For example, through the seasonal lookbook tab, consumers can flip through images from the latest runway show and see exactly which products are used in the look and click-through to the ones that are available in the ecommerce store.

Additionally, the “About Us” section engages consumers through a clickable timeline that displays major landmark years and events for the brand.

Underneath the timeline is an explanation of the brand’s expertise, dedication to service and philosophy.

Richard James also maintains a blog called The Row that highlights designer inspiration as well as art, movies, music and non-branded products that a Richard James consumer might find interesting.

Consumers can also find contact information, branded store locations and retail stores that sell Richard James products such as department store chain Barneys New York.

“There is a lot of great content on this site that the customer could interact with, if and when they wanted to,” Ms. McLean said.

“In the future as the site adapts and evolves, it would be great to see all this content more intertwined with one another,” she said. “For example, [runway] looks or relevant press articles showing on appropriate product detail pages.”

Final Take
Kayla Hutzler, editorial assistant at Luxury Daily, New York