News

Retail Top 100 2012, No. 56: L.L. Bean

July 19, 2012

Never regarded as a retail trendsetter, L.L. Bean has responded to customer demand and now allows consumers to shop its entire inventory of outdoor gear and apparel using a new commerce-enabled mobile site powered by Usablenet. "It's really to meet our customers where they want to shop," said senior public relations representative Laurie Brooks. "We're a multichannel merchant. We were responding to what our customers were asking us — to have a shoppable mobile site." The company built a loyal following over the past 98 years with its liberal return policy and folksy sales staff. The $1.5 billion Freeport, Maine, retailer saw Internet sales top catalog orders for the first time in 2010. The shift from catalog to Web sales led to a decline in phone-in order volume, requiring the retailer to close one of its four call centers. The company responded by allowing affected employees to work from home, winning the No. 1 spot in that year's Bloomberg BusinessWeek customer service ranking.

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