NEW YORK — When Joanne Stoner founded cocktail and evening dress Web site eDressMe.com out of her Manhattan apartment four years ago, she knew the Internet would be an excellent way to reach time-pressed women who want to find contemporary dress fashions all in one place. But Stoner also hoped the site would be an effective way to help revitalize New York’s Garment District, seeing as traditional U.S.-based retailers more often than not source goods from overseas.
So far, both of Stoner’s goals are working out well: With an initial investment of just $200,000 in 2002, Stoner said eDressMe is profitable and sales have jumped 30 percent annually.
According to one local trade association, Stoner and her Web site, which offers as many as 1,000 dresses, are award-worthy. Stoner was recently named a finalist to receive one of the “Ten Awards” from the Executive Council of New York. The “Ten Awards” are given annually to 10 New York executives who “exemplify leadership and innovation within their industry and beyond.”
EDressMe’s successful use of proprietary technology, combined with its humble, entrepreneurial roots, made Stoner a finalist, said Bob Johnson, president of the Executive Council. “When you look at eDressMe, they’re a small company, but what they’re doing, in terms of the way the [Web site’s] interface is with the ease-of-use and the customer [interaction], it is truly unique from a lot of the other retail shops online right now,” Johnson said. Winners of the “Ten Awards” will be announced Nov. 29 at Cipriani Wall Street here.
Stoner, who began her career in the apparel industry 20 years ago as a sales manager at L.S. Ayers & Co., combined her background in fashion, technology and business to launch eDressMe. She was previously a buyer at Saks Fifth Avenue and helped Liz Claiborne launch its Elisabeth dress division. After receiving an MBA from Harvard, Stoner worked for Lucent Technologies as director of e-commerce. She helped launch a software company focusing on retail supply chain and sales forecasting before starting eDressMe.
Stoner knows she has captured a niche. “There are a lot of Web sites that are selling clothes,” she said during a recent interview. “What makes eDressMe different is our mission and the way we fulfill our mission. It has two parts — one part is to the industry and the other is to our customers.”
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Stoner shows that the domestic manufacturing network, especially in New York, can compete with China in the speed-to-market sector. Instead of sourcing dresses for the site’s private label collection, called eDressMe New York, from overseas, Stoner chose New York’s Garment District because she can get trend-right, wholesale goods in weeks rather than months.
“The New York market really does have the advantages of speed and adaptability,” she said, adding that the Internet “is an amazing forecaster, offering a quick response to what customers are looking for.”
EDressMe, meanwhile, is also rooted in the notion that the perfect dress drastically improves a woman’s self-image, said Stoner. “I really believe in dresses to empower women.”
The site’s merchandise mix is roughly half private label and half branded merchandise from well-known designers such as Anna Sui, Betsey Johnson and Nicole Miller, as well as from a handful of emerging designers, such as Rebecca Bruce.
Aside from the Web site, Stoner has also set up a storefront where shoppers can come in off the street at eDressMe’s new West 38th Street headquarters, which is staffed by just seven employees (and growing).