Thank you guys.

Thanks everyone for coming.

First, I'm Lisa Green.

I run our Luxury Fashion Group.

And I'm thrilled to have these four guys here

to talk to us today about how shopping has changed

in the modern day, and give any advice that any of you guys

have about that specific topic.

So we'll go ahead and start with Lauren.

And then we'll just go down the line.

LAUREN SHERMAN: My name's Lauren Sherman.

I am Fashionista's editor-at-large.

I'm a freelance writer as well.

And I write for a bunch of different publications.

My expertise is kind of the intersection

of fashion and business.

So I write for consumer publications.

I write for business publications, trade

and-- So I've been covering this stuff for about 10 years.

And e-commerce is obviously a big part of my beat.

So I guess that's basically it.

LEAH CHERNIKOFF: Hi.

I'm Leah Chernikoff.

I'm the editor of Elle.com.

So that means I oversee all editorial, content, strategy.

Before that I was at Fashionista with Lauren.

She hired me.

And before that, I was a reporter at the Daily News,

covering features.

And then I focused on fashion from there.

And also decided to go digital, when,

I think I experienced the fourth round of layoffs.

So I'm happy to be online.

And so-- yeah, my expertise is more

of sort of a general view on fashion,

and having watched, sort of, things

go from analog to digital.

LISA GREEN: You've got it.

STEVEN ALAN: Hi I'm Steven Alan.

And I started my company about 20 years ago.

And started as a multi-brand retailer and then from there

started representing designers, and then from there,

started manufacturing.

And today, we do all three, kind of three businesses

within a business.

And I think each business is very much complementary

to the other business.

BRETT HEYMAN: Thank you.

Hi, my name is Brett Heyman.

I have a brand of handbags called Edie.

Parker, which I launched about four years ago.

And before that, I had a PR background.

I worked in PR for Gucci and Dolce Gabbana covering

accessories, mostly, and ready-to-wear.

LISA GREEN: Cool.

Well thank you guys.

Thank you again for being here.

We're just going to kick it off by asking

what the strangest thing that you've ever bought online is?

So, Steven, we'll start with you.

STEVEN ALAN: I remember buying a car online,

which for me was pretty weird.

Without seeing it, and it was on eBay,

and it was one of those bidding things--

And it was a particular-- it wasn't

any amazing-- it was just an old Volvo.

But I wanted a stick-shift.

And so I ended up going up to Pittsburgh and picking it up .

It wasn't that weird but--

LISA GREEN: It's a big purchase.

STEVEN ALAN: Yeah, it was a big purchase.

00:02:50,468 --> 00:02:51,216 LISA GREEN: Brett.

You want to go?

BRETT HEYMAN: Well, I'm excited to hear that because I'm

mulling over a Grand Wagoneer online, and through eBay Auto.

So I'm happy that it worked for you.

I don't think I buy a lot of weird stuff.

But I do buy a lot of geodes and rocks,

and I buy them all online on eBay.

LISA GREEN: Well, I'm just going throw in what my weirdest

thing was-- to maybe help you guys

along the continuum of weird-- I once bought a smitten, which

was actually a glove for two people.

So that you could hold hands--

[LAUGHTER]

--while walking down the street.

It's really-- I've been married for 10 years.

So clearly that was more than 10 years ago.

[LAUGHTER]

LEAH CHERNIKOFF: We were talking about this before.

I'm like kind of co-opting my boyfriend because he

buys a lot of weird drugs online.

[LAUGHTER]

And, they come in like strange--

LISA GREEN: Remember, we are video'ing this.

LEAH CHERNIKOFF: Yeah, that's fine.

They're all legal.

[LAUGHTER]

LAUREN SHERMAN: Now, I really want

to know what kind of legal drugs?

Is it like through Canada or something?

[LAUGHTER]

LEAH CHERNIKOFF: [INAUDIBLE] from Asia.

LAUREN SHERMAN: Oh, interesting.

OK.

We can talk about this offline.

I think the weirdest thing I've ever bought

is like a dog DNA test.

I don't know if that's that weird though.

I mean, you guys are doing stuff like that now.

LISA GREEN: It's weird.

LAUREN SHERMAN: And I've tried to buy my own DNA test.

But there are weird rules in New York.

And I've also bought like, the "National Geographic."

It's like the "23 and Me" thing, but what they do.

And it's $100 bucks.

But the doggie DNA was probably the weirdest.

And it confirmed what we already knew.

So it was also a waste of money, but--

[LAUGHTER]

--it was good.

STEVEN ALAN: What was that "National Geographic"?

I'm just curious about that.

LEAH CHERNIKOFF: It's all about her ancestors.

LAUREN SHERMAN: You like-- it's another story.

It's too long.

But, you like-- they take your DNA.

And they find out one-- I think it's

like your grandmother's grandmother.

Or guys can do-- women can't do the guy's lineage too--

but you can find out like one path of your lineage.

And again, it was everything that I already knew.

It was not-- there was nothing exciting in there, except one.

But yeah.

So.

00:04:59,384 --> 00:05:00,000 LISA GREEN: All right.

Well, thanks guys.

Now, the rest of this is gonna be so boring in comparison.

But, let's just start pretty general with what's

the biggest change that you see in the way people are shopping?

Leah, you've got the mike, so why don't you--

LEAH CHERNIKOFF: Um, I think what I've noticed most,

and what I'm guilty of myself, with everything being online

now, is if you see one thing online,

I immediately go to like 10 other sites

to see which site has it at the cheapest price point.

So I think that's really changing

the way-- people aren't just maybe going

to one online shopping destination.

But sort of scoping it out.

I don't know.

We were talking about the death of Huckster,

but that's kind of what that did, right?

LISA GREEN: If anybody else has anything to add,

or we could move on to the next.

You've got something, Steven?

STEVEN ALAN: No.

Go ahead.

LISA GREEN: Nothing?

OK.

In terms of devices, I think that's kind of

been the big theme lately is, we're all

talking about being multi-screen and going from one device

to the next, and kind of switching it all up?

Which one do you think has become the most influential

on purchase decisions?

So not necessarily which one is the one with the last click,

because I think that we're all aware of what that is.

But what do you think?

You know, from TV to a magazine, to a phone, to a computer,

to a billboard, to in-store signage-- what

do you think really has the most influence on purchasing

decisions?

00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:27,579 Steven.

STEVEN ALAN: I think that, I mean,

mobile is definitely the most important thing.

And I think that now what we're seeing

is definitely sort of the tablet gaining more and more strength

compared to the phone.

Just because people are just able to carry it around in.

They're smaller.

And even the phones are becoming more like tablets.

So the line is getting blurred.

LISA GREEN: The phablet?

STEVEN ALAN: Yeah.

I guess.

LISA GREEN: Anything else you guys think?

Like, why do you think mobile and tablet are becoming so big?

LAUREN SHERMAN: Yeah.

Obviously I agree that mobile is huge.

I just did a story this weekend on buying fine jewelry online,

for the "Wall Street Journal"'s Weekend Section.

And a lot of these fine jewelry retailers-- people

are buying $60,000 pairs of earrings on their phone.

And I mean, that's been happening in Asia for years.

But now it's becoming more prevalent here.

But I also think that the phone and the tablet connect you.

If you're in the store and you see something-- and all

this cross-channel stuff that people call Omni Channel

or whatever-- is those things are the connectors.

So whether that means going into a store

and them having tablets for you to buy more stuff.

Or that means you looking on your phone, that's

the thing that's really connecting us,

is the mobile aspect of it.

And

LISA GREEN: And what do you guys think is that big opportunity?

I think Lauren makes a really good point about how

mobile kind of connects you while you're in store.

If you could sort of create-- Steven,

maybe for you in your stores?

How do you feel like your-- you guys should be using mobile

once somebody is already there?

STEVEN ALAN: We do.

I mean we have iPads in the stores.

And people come in the store and then,

if we don't have something, then usually the associate

will go online and see if we have it online.

Then they'll be able to help them and complete

that purchase online.

Or, if another store has it, again they

can check inventory with the same app at and other stores,

and sell that.

Had

LAUREN SHERMAN: Yeah, it's such a simple thing.

But my husband's a big fan of Steven's stuff.

And he-- that, like, sea-green sweatshirt you guys

did for spring?

He really wanted it.

But it was sold out on his size online.

And it said on there that it was available in the Tribeca store.

So he went there.

That's something that's been around for a long time.

But I feel like people are really using it now.

Whereas maybe five years ago, he wouldn't have even thought

of checking to see if it was available in a store,

or he would have picked up the phone and called,

instead of figuring it online.

STEVEN ALAN: That's also-- I mean,

for us, that was definitely like 101, was being able to do that.

And if we didn't have it online, just have it pop up and say,

sorry we're out of that.

But we have it.

And it would be by the SKU.

So it won't tell you to call a store if they don't actually

have that size in that item.

But then, 2.0 would definitely be--

online would actually just start scanning all the stores.

And then be able to just continue that order without you

having to call the store and have the store ship it

to you and all that stuff.

The store would still do that.

But you wouldn't necessarily know that.