NEW YORK — Little-known Internet retailer Active Endeavors offers an extensive selection of emerging and established contemporary designers online, featuring hard-to-find labels such as Charlotte Ronson, Johnson and Corey Lynn Calter, as well as stalwarts such as Marc by Marc Jacobs.
The Evanston, Ill., company started out selling outdoor gear in the Chicago area in 1985 and now has four brick-and-mortar stores in the Midwest and West.
The retailer eliminated all outdoor brands only last year, and the Internet site is its fastest-growing store. A recent redesign added easier navigation and other enhancements. For instance, although the new site does not have advanced effects such as zoom, there are five or six photos per style. The updated Fit Guides are unusually detailed, offering descriptions of specific styles from each denim brand, as well as other lines such as Ella Moss.
With their elaborate detail and comparisons with other brands and styles, the guides sound like music or wine criticism. For example, on the subject of J Brand, a new denim company that is hot because it offers plain, dark, tapered jeans, Active Endeavors says: “Plain is the new bling…While trying on the jean we noticed some back-gapping at the waist, but that’s about all we can critique. This jean also reminded us of a Citizens of Humanity Kelly cut or the A-Pocket by Seven.”
The more frequently updated Look Book gives shoppers ideas for how to put the products together with magazine-style shots of models wearing the clothes. Top Trends does the same, organizing outfits around themes such as the color red, ruching and denim. The site also offers free shipping.
“We’re really excited about the Internet component because it’s the fastest-growing store we have and it seems like a huge opportunity,” said chief executive officer Drew Davis. “That segment of our business has driven a lot of choices we’ve made over time because it’s the vanguard and the rest of the business follows. The Internet gives us very quick feedback on what’s hot, what’s not, and what people want and don’t want.”
The online store was launched in May 2003. A month later, the site got a huge pop when Oprah Winfrey mentioned how much she loved C&C California’s T-shirts. At the time, Active Endeavors was the only Internet retailer carrying them, Davis said.
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The company projects its online store will pull in about $10 million in revenue by the end of this year. Overall, the business is estimated to do about $15 million in 2006, Davis said. Its real-world stores — in Chicago, Evanston and Glencoe, Ill., and Boulder, Colo. — average 3,500 to 4,000 square feet and do about $1 million to $2 million a year. The retailer has about 25 administrative employees, and another 50 to 75 salespeople. Davis declined to reveal 2005 company revenues.
Davis started working as a salesman at the retailer in 1994, and eventually bought Active Endeavors from the founders, who are no longer with the company. In the late Nineties, the retailer began adding fashion items. Although Catherine Malandrino didn’t mix well with Patagonia and North Face, the customers for both were the same, Davis said. The store decided to get into fashion apparel because it turns more quickly than outdoor gear and is less dependent on the weather.
Last year, the company closed a second Chicago location and has hired a marketing director for the Web site. The company advertises on Google and also drives traffic by being affiliated with other Internet sites such as MakeupAlley.com. Only 2 percent of Active’s brick-and-mortar and online customers overlap. Most of its Internet business comes from the coasts, Davis said.
The company plans to compete against department stores and online boutiques by being different. “We’re trying to find a balance between being creative and interesting while still running a business and making a profit,” Davis said.