Mosaic has completed its mission to get all its brands online by the end of this year. And, as Joanna Perry finds out, the latest additions are all set for the Christmas period

In the past few years, the rules of fashion have changed. Trends come and go as always but, more fundamentally, the ways that women research and buy their clothes have altered.

Mosaic Fashions has witnessed this shift in behaviour, both through the success of its own brands that launched online early, such as Warehouse, Principles and Oasis and by watching the rise of online competitors.

Mosaic strategic development director Ishan Patel explains that the retailer wanted to ensure that all of its brands were online by the end of this year – a task that has now been achieved.

He says that, despite the tactile nature of clothing and the social experience created by shopping in stores, Mosaic believes that the on- and offline channels work hand-in-hand. “People like to do their research and then come into stores, so we see them as being quite supportive channels to each other. Also, certain smaller stores can’t hold the whole range,” he says.

In order to tap into the expanding online market and, in particular, to create more profitable multichannel customers, four Mosaic brands have launched transactional web sites this year.

First, came a web site for Shoe Studio. Then Coast, Karen Millen and, finally, Whistles launched web sites on the Fresca e-commerce platform.

Patel says that spending several years developing a platform for the sites internally was not an option when compared with the possibility of having it delivered as a service by Fresca. “The solution won’t ultimately give you success – it is how you use it,” he explains.

With this in mind, Patel says it has been important to get all of Mosaic’s brands trading online quickly. It is only once a site is up and running that staff can learn properly how the online world works.

Each brand has a lot of autonomy concerning the look and feel of its site, but sharing expertise as well as a common platform and integration path for the latest three brands to launch has made the process significantly smoother.

Fresca project manager Jonathan Bowen has worked on the launch of Coast, Karen Millen and Whistles’ web sites. He explains that there has been a common integration path for the sites with Mosaic’s Mercatus merchandising system and its fulfilment partner Amethyst’s systems.

This path was first used when Oasis launched its site with Fresca. Bowen says: “It is reasonably complex, but also a tried and tested way of integrating the systems.”

Because of this, sites developed later have gone live very quickly, despite their complexity. Bowen explains: “Coast took about four and a half to five months and both the Karen Millen and Whistles sites were developed more quickly. From a public web site point of view, they are more complex, but the integration path is a lot easier when you are doing it for the fourth time.”

In the long run, the commonality of the base technology also makes it easier for the different brands to collaborate and learn from each other. “The consistency of the platform means that the brands can share best practice and the different e-commerce managers meet regularly,” explains Bowen. “It also makes it easier for Mosaic’s overall e-commerce manager,” he adds.

Patel says that the pace of change on the web means it is useful for the different brands to be able to co-operate. “The online world tends to move quickly and it is very open. While we run the businesses separately, there is a strong framework to share knowledge and best practice between the brands.”

However, he adds that there is no prescriptive formula, so the brands are not forced to adopt the same features or functionality as each other. “The sites have been put together to make sure that they are absolutely in keeping with the customers they are trying to reach,” he explains.

Although Whistles and Coast’s web sites are built on the same platform, Bowen says that it has been possible to create a completely different look and feel, because the different brands have not been forced to create page designs based on standard templates.

For instance, Coast is keen to highlight new stock on its site and the quick turnaround of product information makes this possible.

Bowen explains: “Part of the Fresca platform is an integrated content management system. The magazine-style pages are all set up through that and Coast manages this content itself.

“If someone wants to create a flash movie, they need a certain amount of expertise. But once you have got that, creating a page in the content management system is very straightforward. You can code in HTML directly or use a tool to do the coding for you,” he continues.

Whistles’ site went live in a soft launch on October 16 and the retailer hopes that the online presence will allow it to grow its customer base and business rapidly.

Features include a virtual boutique that attempts to replicate the in-store customer experience. Shoppers can visualise the fashion outfits and brands in room settings. A search and navigation facility also allows shopping by brand, outfit, style, type, size, colour and other product attributes, as well as the normal product listings.

Customer focus
Although there was an acceptance-testing stage for Mosaic’s sites, the design and functionality were not tested on customers before the sites went live.

However, Bowen adds that there should not be any substantial issues. “If there are things going wrong with the customer journey, it is usually relatively easy to spot. The customer journey through our sites is based on what we deem to be best practice within e-commerce, so there is less doubt in people’s minds about what the right journey is,” he says.

This has proved true for Coast’s transactional web site. It has only been live for five months, but it is set to become Coast’s top trading store, in the same way as has been achieved with the web sites of sister companies Principles and Warehouse.

This Christmas will be the real test for all of Mosaic’s new sites. Bowen says that Fresca’s experience in peak trading periods should mean the sites continue to operate smoothly. “We’ve been through quite a few Christmas periods ourselves already. The experience that we have gained feeds back into every site,” he says.

“This year, we have done a lot of work on back-end performance, data centres and other technologies, to make sure that consumers can get on the sites when they want to.”

In particular, work has been done on Coast’s web site to improve response times. “It had some updates over the summer months to make sure it was in tip-top shape,” Bowen adds.

However, Patel observes: “It is always an ongoing development – not just the design or creative elements of the sites – but keeping up with best practice in terms of how the sites work. It is a medium that requires it. We wouldn’t refit a store every six months, but we could online because the costs are quite different.”

So, although the sites are ready for Christmas, it doesn’t mean that any of the Mosaic brands’ e-commerce managers can sit back and relax in the new year.