Bassike steps up omnichannel offering

Jo-Anne Hui-Miller

16th May 2019

Luxury resortwear brand Bassike is working to expand its omnichannel presence in the coming months, as it launches ship-from-store in an effort to create a more seamless experience for both on- and offline customers.

“If you’re in a physical store and a product is not available in the colour or size you want, that product will be sent directly to you from a location that does have it,” CEO Billy Voss told Internet Retailing.

“If you’re shopping online, it means the inventory might not be in our warehouse, it might be in one of our ten stores. The order will go to the closest store to you that has the product and they’ll send that product to you.”

Ultimately, it means that customers won’t know whether the product they receive came from Bassike’s distribution centre or another store – all they’ll know is that the piece they wanted is available to them in the colour and size that they wish.

“If you think about the complexities behind it, you need real-time inventory and that’s really challenging for businesses, because your inventory is obviously changing with every single transaction so unless you have it in real-time, it’s difficult to have that integrated approach,” explained Voss. “With that technology, it gives you the capability to do that stuff seems simple conceptually, but it’s actually really complex.”

Bassike also replatformed its website in October, which now features more dynamic content, easily integrates social media and gives customers the opportunity to shop from its online lookbook, added Voss. The brand has also launched endless aisle as part of its online strategy.

“Endless aisle capabilities allow us to have a single view of our inventory for our customers,” said Voss. “It’s significant for any business now, both from a commercial and customer perspective, so customers are able to access the product and depth of product in whatever size they want. It reinforces the seamlessness between store and e-commerce.”

An eye on international

Meanwhile, the brand is also focusing on the US market, as it has just signed on with designer fashion agent Rainbowwave to help expand its reach through wholesale.

“They started initially with the international pre-fall collection and they’ve recently sold for winter and are soon to go to market with our resort collection. US wholesale is exciting for us and one of the most exciting parts of our business in terms of our expansion into the marketplace,” said Voss.

“We’d love to do more retail in the US, it’s something we’re always talking about and looking at. We’ve got our little store in the US on Lincoln Boulevard in Venice for four years. Right now, we don’t have any concrete plans in terms of opening our second store.”