Victoria's Secret Semi-Annual Sale Couldn't Keep Up with Online Demand

Twice a year, bra prices at Victoria's Secret go from moderately pricey to reasonably-priced during their well-publicized semi-annual sale. shoppers rush into stores to get the pick of the litter and those of us who aren't lucky enough to live near a mall turn to their online store. Products fly off the shelves quickly, whether in-store or online.

This season, Victoria's Secret could not keep up with the demand of its online shoppers. At first glance, their webmaster seemed to have been on vacation or on strike because tons of sold-out items were still touted as being available on the website. When the sold-out item was placed in the shopping cart, there was a 50% chance that it would tell you the item was sold out right away, or you would find out after the item had supposedly shipped through another E-mail saying the item was actually discontinued.

I placed two orders during this semi-annual sale and have so far received nine E-mails, five of them apologizing for messing up my original orders and two others apologizing for fumbling the supposedly corrected orders. Victoria's Secret has always been slow to update their websites during the semi-annual sale, but this amount of incompetence is shocking.

In early December, 2007 Limited Brands, the parent company of stores like Victoria's Secret, Bath and Body Works, Express and others, reported that sales were down 7% compared to the same time in 2006. Net sales were down about $13 million according to their online press room.

Unbeknownst to many customers, a change in Victoria's Secret direct distribution warehouse is the reason behind the chaos. When they switched warehouses back in August of 2007, higher-ups expected a slowdown according to a November 20^th conference call live on the Limited Brands website. In order to keep up with the demand, they decided to make fewer products available online and in the catalogue without letting customers know, however the catalogue and online store looked no different this holiday season. Women all over the Internet have been complaining about experiences similar to mine since October. Some waited up to an extra month for the misplaced items to arrive on their doorstep. It looks like I will be in the same boat.

With decreased sales and unhappy customers, Limited Brands needs to come up with a solution fast before word of mouth brings about a virtual boycott of the brand. As more and more customers become upset with bungled orders they are starting to complain about price vs. quality in blogs and online message boards, something they were willing to overlook before this mess.

To keep customers happy, VS needs to keep their current quality and lower prices or up their quality and go all out a la the Agent Provocateur crowd who can afford to spend $140 on one bra. Bad service + mediocre quality + high prices + more bad service just when you think your items are on the way = failure.

I for one love Victoria's Secret. I've been shopping with them for about fifteen years and have never had a problem with their products, quality or fitting. I would hate to see them go under but I don't appreciate bad business either.

Limited Brands needs to remember that not all of their customers live within a reasonable driving distance to a mall, and remember that their online services are a lifeline to US military members overseas who can't bear to purchase the poorly-made bras sold at the PX/BX. In my opinion, their warehouse woes should have been fixed prior to the holiday season. Their customers deserve an explanation without having to go to the corporate website and hunt down old press releases.

If this trend of poor service and no communication continues, customers will not only avoid online shopping with them, they will avoid the stores as well. Victoria's Secret cannot afford to lose the customers they are carelessly tossing aside. They should fix their warehousing issues on-site instead of driving customers away as a means of fixing their supply and demand issues with the warehouse. It doesn't make sense.