[Sydney, AUSTRALIA] National health and cosmetics retail chain Priceline is banking on beauty hitting the spot with online shoppers, with the launch of its Web presence today.
The channel will push Priceline’s catalogue items and make them available to purchase online, and intends to complement the sales angle with information such as beauty tips to add value to its site.
The site will be broken into three sections, beauty, health and home, as part of the company’s
strategy to “strongly integrate our stores with our online presence,” said Priceline managing director Jeff Sher.
Sher said that customer service would figure strongly in this strategy, and said the company will use its national infrastructure of 114 stores to support facets like reverse logistics, the cost of which can be a killer for pure Internet retail plays that have little recourse for customers but to mail back items they wish to return. The focus on such an aspect is so strong that it has driven e-tailers to strike alliances with bricks and mortar companies, such as that struck between wishlist and BP service stations back in August.
Priceline’s site has been created by e-commerce firm S-Central, and as part of an ongoing partnership between the companies the developer will continue to manage, maintain and host the site, and manage the payment infrastructure and distribution and delivery of products to customers.
S-Central constructed the site in four weeks, in order to meet Priceline’s mandate to have the site available in time for Christmas.
This is not S-Central’s first foray into retail; the developer manages sites for more than 50 retail brands including toy franchise Toy Kingdom, clothing retailer Atelier and Figgins Holdings, which operates 134 shoe retail outlets under brands such as Shoobiz, Mollini and Emporio.