Retail Merchandiser - November/December 2015 - S35
example, provided a strong indicator of the rising strength of online retailers, he says. Edwards chose to come to eBags because "the shift to working for a leading online company attracted me," he says. He adds that traditional approaches to retail no longer work, and wants to incorporate technology into eBags' sales. "Every retailer is challenged to develop leaders who embrace change," Edwards says. "Companies and investors must actively harness innovation and smart risk taking, while taking a longer-term view toward transforming and winning. We live in an ever-changing mobile world that quickly adjusts to revolutionary technologies and services. To succeed, a company's culture needs to place a high value on data, customer information, speed and change." Edwards keeps a keen eye on eBags' competition, which includes department stores as well as Amazon. "Our pricing is parallel with anyone in the industry," he says. "But we win on selection, shipping, experience, rewards program, returns and great customer service. We're a specialized retailer online. We own the mobile space." That's largely because department stores have been forced to create mobile apps on the fly in order to catch up, while eBags started as an online business in 1998, he says. Technology's Role eBags is looking to technology to solidify its position as a leading-edge company in the market. The company's website has won several awards, and the retailer is teaming with Iterate Studio to create an innovation lab. "eBags' innovation lab consists of two elements," Edwards says. "The first is a rapid test center designed to improve the velocity and number of experiments conducted on eBags' websites each month. This will speed up our absorption of unique digital tools that are proven to improve shopping for the 36 million people that visit our site each year. The second is a digital research and development lab designed to enhance the company's business model." The company is soon to launch a mobile application that allows users to look at photos of bags and swipe right if they love the bag or swipe left if they don't. A customer's likes and dislikes provide eBags with data that helps it display a personalized list. Customers ® Travelpro also can upload Travelpro®, the luggage choice of flight a photo of a bag crews and frequent travelers and the they like and the inventor of the Rollaboard®, the first upright mobile app will rolling luggage, appreciates the continued immediately disopportunity to partner with Mike Edwards and his talented team at eBags. Travelpro® play products that looks forward to many mutual years of resemble the upcontinued prosperity and success. loaded photo. O November/December 2015 RETAIL-MERCHANDISER.COM 35
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.