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Shopping online is now as routine as walking into a store, so it’s only natural the virtual world has begun to mirror the real one.
There are now dozens of small online boutiques competing with more established and bigger names like Girlshop, Net-a-Porter, Shopbop and Active Endeavors. All are helping to raise the profile of cutting-edge and little-known designers among both hip urban dwellers and those living off the Barneys New York grid.
Some of the sites resemble a big SoHo store that does a booming business in colorful T-shirts and designer jeans, while others are more like a tiny, offbeat shop that specializes in obscure but innovative designers. Many are the online branches of real-world stores. A surprising number ape the look of Shopbop, which was bought by Amazon earlier this year, and carry many of the same contemporary mainstays, such as Vince, Generra and Splendid.
Typically, a small boutique that opens an online store can expect to generate about $300,000 in revenue the first year, said store owners. Once it is established, revenues of $500,000 to $1 million are about average, particularly for the more commercial ventures. In many cases, an online store equals a physical store in revenue, but draws customers from around the globe.
“It opens up what you’re doing to a wider audience,” said Jeff Madalena, co-owner of the Brooklyn boutique and Web site Oak.
Here are seven of the more unusual newcomers.
Hejfina
Hejfina.com
This Chicago lifestyle store opened its online shop in March after being deluged with inquiries from people outside the area. Most of its Web sales now come from Southern California and the New York metropolitan area. While the real-world store hosts lectures on architecture and displays art by local up-and-comers, the Web store stocks a passel of inventive, frolicsome frocks that would not be out of place at a big-city art opening. Designers include Isabel Marant, Alice Ritter and Alexander Herchcovitch.
La Garconne
Lagarconne.com
The spare, beautifully designed site has girlish Mod outfits carefully selected from high-quality labels such as Swedish jeans maker Cheap Monday, Vanessa Bruno and cashmere specialists Lutz & Patmos. The online-only store opened in 2005 and is based in Fairfield, Conn., but ships globally. Shipping is free on orders over $100.
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Creatures of Comfort
Shop.creaturesofcomfort.us
This Los Angeles store favors sculptural clothing paired with playful shoes, such as fuzzy rubber flats from Melissa Green. Owner and buyer Jade Lai opened her online store last May to give more exposure to difficult-to-find designers such as United Bamboo, Vena Cava and Carson Potter.
“It is beneficial for both the store and customers who are looking for the hard-to-find designers,” she said.
She plans to introduce her own line this spring.
Blaec
Blaec.com
The online-only store opened its doors for business in 2000. Its name, pronounced black, means just that in Old English. Its unusual interface is designed to look like store windows, with mannequins wearing outfits in each one.
A click on an individual item brings up information about and a bigger photo of the piece. The Santa Barbara, Calif.-based boutique used to specialize in resources from nearby Los Angeles, but now owner Jodi McMillen hunts for fresh labels from all over the world. She plans to carry KA7, the much-anticipated new collection from Katayone Adeli when it is available in February. Other labels include Gray Ant, Catherine Malandrino, 3.1 by Phillip Lim, Kenneth Jay Lane and Sass & Bide.
Oak
Oaknyc.com
The Brooklyn boutique run by two former stylists and designers, Jeff Madalena and Louis Terline, has been on a tear, opening a store in Williamsburg in 2004, then in Park Slope last year, and an online outpost this year. The concept for all three stores is the same and changes every season.
Currently, the look is spare and simple, with mostly black and white pieces from such resources as Opening Ceremony, Veena and jewelry designers Alex + Chloe. For spring, Oak will break out prints and color.
Azalea
Azaleaonline.com
The San Francisco boutique opened its online store last year after tourists who had shopped at the Hayes Street unit kept calling to reorder. The Web site now accounts for half the company’s revenues and does a significant business in organic beauty products (the real-world store has a nail salon in the back) and also offers a full line of See by Chloe and high-waisted jeans from Gray Ant. Plans are to relaunch the site in March under the name Tobi (a much-loved customer) and add a section for organic and sustainable clothes, such as Levi’s green Eco line.
The Web site’s Lookbook section shows shoppers how to put together an outfit and every online buyer is automatically assigned a personal stylist who offers advice on how to wear each purchased item. Shipping is free for orders over $100 and occasional promotions offering free shipping outside the U.S. have won many overseas customers, said co-owner Catherine Chow.
Milk
Shopatmilk.com
An offshoot of the year-old West Hollywood boutique, this cute and funky online store has a front page featuring a fun collage. Owners and cousins Marni Flans and Bari Milken opened the e-tailing site in June because “online shopping has become huge,” as Flans put it. “People don’t want to leave the house.”
The online shop leans toward retro-inspired clothes in soft colors from such lines as Christopher Deane, Sue Stemp, American Retro and Sretsis. Other offerings include sneakers, ballet flats, Pollini pumps and vintage.