Derek Lam Unveils Relaunched Web Site

WWD — Derek Lam is back in the e-commerce game.

After shutting down e-commerce on dereklam.com two years ago, the brand rolled out a revamped site this week that, for the first time, carries a full range of the Collection and diffusion Derek Lam 10 Crosby lines in one place.

Jan Schlottmann, the firm’s chief executive officer, called this the “biggest offering of Derek Lam in one location,” adding the site will sell ready-to-wear, handbags, shoes, eyewear and brand collaborations, like a handbag partnership with Mark Cross.

The company has never maintained its own e-commerce destination for Derek Lam 10 Crosby, although it’s carried online by retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue, Net-a-Porter, Barneys New York and Neiman Marcus. In lieu of building an online store for Lam’s diffusion collection, the company partnered with Amazon on the e-tail giant’s first designer online store in March 2013.

“It was not a success,” Schlottmann said of the partnership with Amazon, which still sells 10 Crosby footwear. “We tried to create a contained environment — like a shop-in-shop — but it was not successful commercially.”

Amazon owned the inventory and ran the store, which made it difficult for the brand to create “a pure 10 Crosby destination…which was the goal,” according to Schlottmann. He added that the team was initially attracted to Amazon because of the “pure ease” of the site and the immense traffic — but the partnership failed to meet expectations.

Amazon executives did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday regarding the Lam partnership.

Derek Lam commissioned Onestop Internet — an L.A.-based firm that’s worked with brands like Rag & Bone and J Brand — to create the site and handle fulfillment, while site design was led by creative agency Berger & Wild. Schlottmann declined to reveal e-commerce sales projections for the first year, but he did say the site will likely become the biggest Derek Lam door. www.wwd.com