Target’s Lilly Pulitzer launch ignites shopping frenzy
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The launch of Target’s Lilly Pulitzer product line created pandemonium at stores and online. Merchandise quickly sold out, leaving many shoppers angry and annoyed. VPC
Heavy demand for the much-anticipated debut of Target’s Lilly Pulitzer product line overloaded the retailer’s website Sunday and left store racks and shelves bare.
The Lilly Pulitzer land rush recalled a similar retail meltdown four years ago when Target released another signature product line from Italian luxury knitwear designer Missoni. Target’s website crashed repeatedly and in-store shoppers were met with lines and sellouts.
Even though empty-handed consumers heaped vitriol about Target on Twitter during the day, industry observers question whether any substantial backlash will register. Brian Sozzi, the CEO of Belus Capital Advisors, called the event “typical Target” for high-profile designer launches with “tight supply, done purposely to stoke demand and Internet chatter.”
Still, social media consultant EJ Haust of Minneapolis wondered on Twitter “how many complaints there are, and how (Target) will try to spin (the event) as a ‘success.’”
In advance of Sunday’s launch of the resort-themed designer items, Target began posting updates about its website on Twitter early in the morning. “We know you’re frustrated & we’re sorry,” a tweet posted about 7 a.m. ET said. “We appreciate your patience. You can now shop the #LillyforTarget collection.”
Target.com never crashed, but “there was extreme traffic” to the site, said Target spokesman Joshua Thomas. The company intentionally made the site inaccessible for about 15 minutes around 3 a.m. ET, he said.
Subsequently, online supplies were quickly bought up and by noon ET everything was “virtually sold out,” Thomas said.
Lines began forming early at brick-and-mortar stores Sunday and many shoppers went home empty-handed as products sold out.
Not surprisingly, dresses and handbags quickly cropped up on eBay with more than 9,400 listings of Lilly Pulitzer Target products. “That’s really disappointing to us,” Thomas said.
Target is “not the first retailer that’s experienced its products being sold” for a profit on eBay, he said. Limited product lines “become like collectors’ items.”
He said Target does not plan to replenish supplies of the Pulitzer line, which had 250 different items.
Shopper Rachel Rickert, 41, of St. Louis Park, Minn., considered herself lucky to come out victorious in her hunt for Pulitzer goodies. When she explored Target.com about 7 a.m. ET, all of the dresses she was interested in were sold out.
Rickert then ventured to a nearby Target and everything there was sold out, too. But at a SuperTarget just a bit farther away, she found a dress that she described as “a beachy type of sundress.”
Blue and white with a pattern of seashells and seahorses, the dress isn’t for wearing to work, but “I will definitely get some good use out of it walking around the lakes this summer,” she said.
A manager told her that “by the time they opened the line was deeper than on Black Friday,” Rickert said. “‘Preppy Black Friday’ is what they called it.”
The hashtag #LillyforTarget continued to trend past noon ET. Among the comments was this one from Tom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo Marquez, hosts of Pop Style Opinionfest: “@TargetStyle needs to stop humiliating its costumers (sic) and plan these collaborations a little better.”
Author Jen Lancaster (The Tao of Martha) tweeted, “Everything gone in three minutes. Women waited in line w/hundreds of dollars, left with nothing. How is this good business?”
Shopper Elaine Taylor, 51, of College Station, Texas, agrees. “This was a perfect storm of high demand, stupidly low pricing and low merchandise quantities and greed by some people,” she said.
When she got to her local Target, she saw other shoppers with hauls clearly meant for reselling online. “You couldn’t buy that much for personal use,” she said. “It definitely dampens enthusiasm for future launches.”
Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider
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