Follow-Ups: Amazon/Wal-Mart and Stores-within-Stores

The Amazon/Wal-Mart battle has expanded beyond price-cutting on a few bestsellers, and neither side shows any sign of backing down. Which makes the web traffic reports for Black Friday of particular interest:

Amazon not only maintained their top spot in terms of traffic, but also showed the biggest gains over the previous year. Not a bad performance.

A surprisingly strong entrant is Sears, at #5. We commented a few weeks ago that we thought they had played the Amazon/Wal-Mart battle well, and this would indicate we may have been right. Their showing is especially strong if you combine the Sears and Kmart numbers, in which case they move ahead of Best Buy into fourth. Many people (including me) frequently criticize Sears and Kmart, but they may be doing something right online.

J.C. Penney has had a lot of success with their Sephora stores inside many Penney locations, as we discussed a few weeks back, and is planning to take another shot at the stores-within-stores concept by inviting in European 'fast fashion' retailer Mango.

In 2010 the new line, MNG by Mango, will be in 75 locations as well as being available online; by Fall 2011 it will be in 600 stores. Penney will also be adding 75 additional Sephora locations to the 155 now open.

Sephora shops have higher sales per square foot than the rest of the store and create a "great halo effect," bringing in new shoppers who then explore other departments, said Liz Sweney, executive vice president and general merchandise manager of women's apparel at J.C. Penney. "Our ability to attract Mango had to do with our success with Sephora," she said. Mango is one of Spain's largest women's apparel chains, with sales last year of $2.2 billion from 1,300 stores in 94 countries, including 12 in the U.S.

It appears Penny is taking aim at younger women who would not normally be attracted to them, but may come in for Sephora or now for Mango, and perhaps stick around to shop other sections of the store.