Victoria Secret
Retail Term Project
A) History of the Company “Victoria's Secret is inspired by a love for lingerie, and the desire to bring beauty—and fantasy—into every woman’s wardrobe. We believe little luxuries are of grand importance. And what’s closest to your body is always closest to our heart” (Victoria’s Secret Facebook page). Victoria’s Secret was originally founded in 1977 by Roy Raymond; the store was opened in San Francisco. The reason he opened the store was because he always felt uncomfortable shopping for lingerie for his wife, so he wanted to create a more comfortable atmosphere using Victorian details and helpful sales staff. He later opened up a few more stores and started a mail-order catalogue. In 1982 Leslie Wexner, the founder of The Limited, bought Victoria’s Secret and its catalogue for $1 million to add to his current collection of brands already owned. In 1998 Victoria’s Secret launched VictoriasSecret.com, which is one of the fastest growing and most profitable e-commerce on the Internet. As of January Victoria’s Secret stores had a Net Sales of over $4 billion and the catalogue and Internet site combined for over $1 billion (limitedbrands.com). There are currently over 1,000 Victoria’s Secret stores, we choose to focus on the couple in the Cincinnati area. We interviewed Liz Papa a PINK category Supervisor at Victoria’s Secret in Rookwood Commons. We also looked at the Victoria’s Secret in Kenwood and the PINK store in Kenwood. Liz informed us that the growth of her Victoria’s Secret location, along with the other locations, work off of a tier system. They move up tiers by their sales for that location. Her store, since she has been working there, has gone from a “One to Two Million Dollar Store” to a “Two to Four Million Dollar Store.” With moving up in tiers the store receives more roles, like employees and managers. A most obvious business change over the past years for Victoria’s Secret has been the added private label
A) History of the Company “Victoria's Secret is inspired by a love for lingerie, and the desire to bring beauty—and fantasy—into every woman’s wardrobe. We believe little luxuries are of grand importance. And what’s closest to your body is always closest to our heart” (Victoria’s Secret Facebook page). Victoria’s Secret was originally founded in 1977 by Roy Raymond; the store was opened in San Francisco. The reason he opened the store was because he always felt uncomfortable shopping for lingerie for his wife, so he wanted to create a more comfortable atmosphere using Victorian details and helpful sales staff. He later opened up a few more stores and started a mail-order catalogue. In 1982 Leslie Wexner, the founder of The Limited, bought Victoria’s Secret and its catalogue for $1 million to add to his current collection of brands already owned. In 1998 Victoria’s Secret launched VictoriasSecret.com, which is one of the fastest growing and most profitable e-commerce on the Internet. As of January Victoria’s Secret stores had a Net Sales of over $4 billion and the catalogue and Internet site combined for over $1 billion (limitedbrands.com). There are currently over 1,000 Victoria’s Secret stores, we choose to focus on the couple in the Cincinnati area. We interviewed Liz Papa a PINK category Supervisor at Victoria’s Secret in Rookwood Commons. We also looked at the Victoria’s Secret in Kenwood and the PINK store in Kenwood. Liz informed us that the growth of her Victoria’s Secret location, along with the other locations, work off of a tier system. They move up tiers by their sales for that location. Her store, since she has been working there, has gone from a “One to Two Million Dollar Store” to a “Two to Four Million Dollar Store.” With moving up in tiers the store receives more roles, like employees and managers. A most obvious business change over the past years for Victoria’s Secret has been the added private label