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Amazon.com buys Bop’s online store
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Also by Heather Quitos:
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- In-Depth: Looking inside UW's closet (April 12, 2007)
- Recruiters face diversity issue (March 26, 2007)
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- Online buying has not shut the book on campus bookstores (January 19, 2004)
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by Heather Quitos
Friday, March 3, 2006
Madison-based women's clothing store Bop recently established its global reputation after international online retailer Amazon.com acquired the store's website, Shopbop.com.
Shopbop.com spokesperson Alle Fister said Amazon.com approached the owners of Shopbop.com in order to acquire the site, but could not release specifics of the deal.
Founded in 1999, Shopbop.com has continued to increase in popularity among Internet retailer sites.
"Shopbop.com is a leading destination and best-of-breed customer experience for fashion-forward apparel, which will be a great complement to Amazon.com's current apparel store," Fister said in an e-mail.
Bop store manager Mollie Milano added that Shopbop.com is a leading site for online women's retail, competing with company sites for designer boutiques like Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue.
"Obviously, the web is available to the world, when the store is available to just Madison," Milano said. "[Amazon.com] admired what we've done, and they were looking to get into designer fashion."
Although Amazon.com will own Shopbop.com, Fister said the site will operate separately and there will be no changes to the site or the store on West Gorham Street off-campus.
Milano said shipping improvements would be just one of the advantages of integrating with a leading online retailer, as the company ships directly from Madison.
Fister said the website will benefit from Amazon.com's "unparalleled" expertise in technology and distribution.
"Amazon.com intends to invest in the Shopbop brand to further the success we've have had to date," she added.
Russ Grandinetti, vice president of the Amazon.com apparel and accessories store, also expressed their optimism of the deal.
"We're incredibly happy to have Shopbop.com become part of the Amazon family," Grandinetti said in a press release. "We look forward to introducing their incredible brand and store to Amazon's tens of millions of customers."
And according to Milano, Amazon.com's acquisition of the store's site will just improve already increasing success.
"It's an exciting thing for us," she said. "We hold Amazon in the highest regard and they do the same for us."
