Chapter 6 - Consumer Decision Making

It is very crucial for a firm to understand  how consumers make their decision when making purchases.  Acquiring this knowledge will help a firm's decision on how they specifically market their products to their consumer.

As you all may know by now, Gilt Groupe is a members only flash website that offers designer clothing for men, women, and children up to 80% off.  As a consumer, being apart of a members only website like Gilt.com creates an atmosphere of exclusivity for the shopper's experience.

We live in a world today were designer clothing and goods represent a sign of success and wealth. Generally speaking, the average person would choice to wear designer clothing but never do because of the high cost.  Gilt is a business platform that caters to all consumers that want to wear designer clothing but at very affordable price.

The first step to gain a consumer's trust is through brand recognition.  There are many off price flash websites in the market today but Gilt Groupe is the first of its kind.  Gilt's advantage to their business model not only from the product they sell but lies with the people they employee.  By hiring veteran clothing buyers that have priceless relationships with designer brands provides the company a major advantage.  These relationships allow Gilt.com to sell these designer clothes at a discounted price on their website exclusively. Once a consumer gains the trust of a company through brand recognition, a stimuli occurs and now you have a customer making a decision based on how well things are priced on the website. That is why Gilt.com has over 5 million members and still counting.

Chapter 5 - Developing a Global Vision

In 2007, Gilt Groupe started off by catering only to the US market by facilitating orders domestically. With the help of the world wide web, Gilt Groupe managed to grow at such a rapid rate. As the company's membership grew to 5 million people, the company knew the next step was to grow their customer reach and allow people from all parts of the world to shop on their site. In 2010,  the company decided to facilitate orders to 103 countries. Now international customers can participate on Gilt.com with just a minimal shipping fee of $19.95. Now that customers from over 100 countries can shop on Gilt.com, the possibilities of reaching a true global market would be more tangible for the company. With the help of the international customers nearly 50% of merchandise sells out within the first few hours, the company says.

In 2011, Gilt Groupe  decided to test the waters with the overseas market and launched Gilt Japan.  Now people in Japan seat comfortable at home, office or on their smart phone through Gilt's mobile application and partake on Gilt's flash website. Gilt Japan offers their customers the same discounts on  men's clothing, women's clothing, children's clothing, home goods, and city events. 

Chapter 4 - The Marketing Environment

According to QuantCast.com the average person that visits Gilt.com is a Caucasian women that is roughly 25 to 34 years of age and has a college degree. Her house hold income is roughly $50-$100k or 150k+, and she has no children.

In May 2012, Gilt's web traffic for the entire month was just shy of 1 million people visting their site.

As you can see, Gilt's customer base is predominantly women with 72% of females visting their site.

Gilt's Age demographic varies from 18 to 60 years of age. However, their core age group that visits their site would be 25-34 years. This specific age group makes up 30% of their visitors.

Remarkably, more than half of customers that are visiting Gilt.com do not have children.

It is very interesting to see the report on the household income. As you can see there is a tie on the customer base that visits Gilt's website. The tie goes to the average house hold income of $50-&100k (middle class) and the average house hold income of $150K+

44% of the vistors on Gilt Groupe have College degrees. The average person using the internet that has a college degree is 41%.

The majority of Gilt's vistors are Caucasian (58%). Second place would be African American making up 26%. 

Chapter 3 - Ethics & Social Responsibility

With the success of Gilt's business. The company feels very passionate about giving back to the world and to humanity. 

In 2010, for Earth Day, Gilt Groupe partnered with The Nature Conservancy and National Audobon Society to support both charity's missions. As part of their Earth Day promotion, Gilt curated a collection of eco-friendly fashions, accessories, home goods and more that supported The Nature Conservancy. Gilt contributed $40,000 to The Nature Conservancy from it's Earth Day Collection on April 22, 2010.  In addition, Gilt held a first time sale of Nature Conservancy photography prints from some of the Conservancy's favorite commissioned photographers including Mark Godfrey. Finally, for those who became a member of Gilt Groupe between April 22 to June 30, 2010,  The Nature Conservancy received $25 for the initial purchase by these new members.

Another charity Gilt worked with was in the December 2010. Gilt Groupe launched a special, charity-minded promotion that made customers feel even better about all the shopping they did on Gilt. For every purchased item on Gilt between 12/6 and 12/12, the company donated $1 to charity: water, an organization dedicated to providing clean, safe drinking to people living in developing countries. In addition to all that, in an effort to throw some love back to their loyal fans, Gilt selected 10 members at random each day and giving them each $100 in Gilt credit to spend as they see fit.

Chapter 2 - Strategic Planning for Competitive Advantage

Gilt Groupe's CEO Kevin P. Ryan understood that the U.S. economy had been in trouble for quiet some time and that the average consumer wishes to buy luxury goods but cannot afford them at full price. Brick and Mortar stores notice that a large percentage of their full price business had been affected because of our economy's finical problems.  Generally speaking, consumers would rather wait a few months for something to go on sale than pay full price.

Ryan noticed a pattern and set out to build a core founding team that would develop a website that allowed consumers not have to wait for sales and offer merchandise up to 60% off. He brought on Mike Bryzek and Phong Nguyen as the technical masterminds. From the start they worked to create the fastest, most exciting and elegant shopping experience online. They strove to ensure that all customers who shopped on Gilt received unparalleled customer service from the moment they entered the virtual doors, to the instant the gleaming box arrived at their doorstep. Alexis Maybank and Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, long time friends and devoted New York City designer sample sale shoppers, were next to join the team, bringing their personal passions for online shopping to the group. Alexis, with a background in eCommerce at eBay and AOL, and Alexandra, with a background in luxury goods from Bulgari and Louis Vuitton, set out to build the rest of the Gilt team. 

They got the word out to savvy shoppers across the country, set their sights on the best designer brands and services and convinced these brand partners to be featured on Gilt.com. From there they have cornered the marketing by introducing and creating 8 different divisions under the Gilt Groupe umbrella. 

Another aspect of the business Gilt does to separates themselves from their competitors are their continuous marketing strategies through social media and a men's editorial fashion blog that teaches fun facts. 

With hiring the most affluent people in the industry, customers feel validated knowing that they are offered the best of the best. A true one stop shop.