Boston Proper Billion-Dollar Opportunity

Moraskie agrees, adding, "The lesson is: Beware of the new big thing. It's OK not to adopt it if it doesn't meet your needs. You can make some things your edit points. For example, if it's something that's too hard for customers to figure out, that's an edit point right there."

At Boston Proper, e-commerce is now integrated into all aspects of the company, from weekly merchandise meetings to gatherings of operations personnel — even photo shoots. Photographers are told ahead of time which merchandise must be shot separately and differently to make it more appealing to online shoppers.