Prospecting: le Dress Seeing Success (and Customers) From Gilt City Promotions

le Dress, an upscale dress-only boutique in Chicago, has seen great success from promotions it launched last month through Gilt City, the online luxury experience site and subsidiary of Gilt Groupe. Gilt City, a competitor to Groupon, allows retailers to offer exclusive deals to its members. Each sale lasts seven days and features many of a city’s most sought after restaurants, spas, concerts, cultural offerings and more. Gilt City is currently available in New York, Boston, Chicago, Miami, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

One particular le Dress/Gilt City promotion offered Gilt City members 50 percent off le Dress store merchandise; another offered 50 percent off a le Dress private Dress Me Chic party. le Dress decided “Gilt City was a great fit because it caters to a more upscale readership and its revenue split is more compelling than many of its competitors,” says Eva Anderson, co-owner of le Dress. What’s more, Anderson and co-owner Robyn Anderson (the two owners are sisters-in-law) had purchased Gilt City deals from other businesses previously, and felt Gilt City offered a positive customer experience, which was important to them.

The results of le Dress’ campaigns with Gilt City were impressive: le Dress sold out of its first round of certificates and decided to authorize more so that everyone on its waiting list could purchase certificates as well.

But that’s not all. le Dress plans to track the customer information (as it does with all its clients) of all those who redeemed Gilt City certificates. Customers acquired via Gilt City also had the opportunity to sign up for le Dress’ opt-in email newsletter program to take advantage of special le Dress events, sales and offers.

“We’re considering a special offer for the new clients who came to us via Gilt City,” says Robyn Anderson. “We recognize that these types of consumers appreciate value and enjoy trying new things, so we want to appeal to those sensibilities.”