(CNN) -- When Banana Republic opened its doors in 1978, the last thing it seemed concerned about was quietly fitting in with the competition. With its safari-wear product line and theme-park-like stores, it was, if anything, a rebellious child next to such softer-spoken, old-time giants as Levi's. Since then it's grown up. Its look has become refined and sophisticated, its collection has branched out to include bedding and table-top items.
But while it's continued to stand apart from trends, this fall Banana Republic will follow -- without much hoopla -- in the footsteps of others including Levi's. It's to incorporate technology into the shopping experience, opening two gadget-enabled, 50,000-square-foot (15,000-meter) flagship stores and an online store at www.bananarepublic.com.
The question is whether these tools will prove useful for shoppers. Or are they simply another example of entertainment-based, Information Age overload?
According to Seema Williams, market analyst at Forrester Research in Massachusetts, the answer is yes to both.
"We're seeing that the advent of technology is driving more advanced retailers," she says, "to struggle to figure out how they can bring funky, technology-based devices into stores. In the case of Banana Republic, I think that with the exception of the Web site, it's all just a marketing kick aimed at appealing to its young, affluent customer base that's most likely wired."
Under the pith helmet
Cindy Capobianco, Banana Republic's senior director of communications and event marketing, has a different take on it. She says these new additions have been designed specifically to make shopping easier for the company's loyal followers.
"This year," Capobianco says, "we asked ourselves, 'What do flagship stores mean to us in the new millennium?"'
She says flagship stores are considered in the Banana Republic corporate ethos to be "jewels of the company" because they offer the entire range of products.
"We realized," Capobianco says, "that nowadays we're all multitasking all the time, and that gadgets are integral to the way we live. So we decided to take the money we'd normally spend on a grand-opening celebration and invest it in technology instead."
As for the online store, scheduled to open its virtual doors on October 15, Capobianco is adamant that Banana Republic isn't merely hurrying to jump on the bandwagon to cyberspace.
"We were thinking about launching a Web site for a long time," she says, "but we didn't want to do it until our customers were ready to shop online. In the last two years, we felt that the important thing was to grow the business, to figure out who we're really talking to. The company has changed so much over the years. We're not worried about being a trendsetter."
Banana Republic's online store is to include the same breadth of products featured in its flagship stores and new catalog -- a generation beyond its original J. Peterman-esque illustrated circular -- which made its debut in 1998. That product line ranges from suede and cashmere clothing and accessories to handblown glass plates that are part of its home collection, inaugurated three-and-a- half years ago.
The Web site is being designed to evoke what Capobianco describes as Banana Republic's hallmark ambience -- "very simple, calm, straightforward" -- to soothe shoppers as they browse collections and juxtapose color images of shirts and sweaters with pants and skirts. The company says the site will include no promotional banners, pop-ups or commercial links.
Early screen shots show models posed in playful positions beside options to do things such as "view all women's tanks and T's" or to select "key looks" that pair garments Banana Republic recommends to make great outfits.
But as much as the company might like to believe it's above trends, the fact remains that in this case it's following suit -- and for good reason. Forrester Research's "Technographics Field Study" from spring 1999 shows that 27 percent of United States online consumers 18 years and older include apparel in their online purchases.
"They're late in launching the site, but they can afford to be," says Williams, noting that Gap Inc., which owns Banana Republic, is doing "remarkably well" right now.
It's a jungle in here
Levi's launched its online store at www.levis.com in November 1998. The site includes a "style finder" that helps shoppers choose outfits based on their tastes in music, fashion, and "free time." The company says that 74 percent of the customers who have gone through this process say the clothing the site recommended based on their profile was "right" for them.
In the new San Francisco Levi's megastore, which opened in August, there's a computer program to help customers try to buy the proper fit and "biometrics finger scanning" to identify and greet returning customers by name.
On Guess' Web site at www.guess.com you can "mix and match" articles of clothing to make outfits. For instance, you choose a top and the site tells you, "This will go great with ..." whatever garment is being promoted.
At Dockers online, www.dockers.com, launched in November 1998, you can "try on" your selections in a virtual changing room. If you're still not sure whether you should buy them, e-mail the images to a friend for a second opinion, using an on-screen e-mail button.
Another part of the forest
A stock investors' favorite Abercrombie & Fitch is another retailer that's beaten Banana Republic onto the ether.
A&F started as a hunting- and camping-equipment company in 1892; was bought by The Limited Inc. in 1988; later split off as a separately traded company; and today has more than 200 stores catering to the 18-to-23 age range. Wryly capitalizing on the double-entendre of its new slogan -- "When you're young, you're gold" -- A&F tightly targets the lucrative campus market. The company got its online store up and running this summer at www.abercrombie.com.
Cyber-shopping is only the latest addition to that Web site, which also offers free email accounts, "A&F soundrack" music downloads, screen savers and desktop photos of bare-chested teen-age boys (wrestling is the menswear theme) and screaming girls (it's swimming for the women this season). Customers can subscribe to a catalog-magazine, "The Quarterly," which "chronicles the college experience," according to A&F spokesman Hampton Carney of Paul Wilmot Communications.
Then there's Banana Republic's sister state, The Gap -- www.gap.com -- which Capobianco defines as "less luxurious, less democratic" and "appealing to a larger segment of the market" than Banana Republic. It launched its Web site in 1996, then made it "commerce-enabled" in 1997. Everybody in leather.
Dr. Livingston, I consume
Banana Republic's new flagship stores are at Third Street Promenade at Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica, California, and -- as of October 26 -- at 626 Fifth Avenue (that's at 51st Street) in Manhattan.
Techno-amenities at these key locations include "solstice lighting" in dressing rooms, to let customers adjust simulated day and evening lighting. "It'll let you see if the colors of a suit, for instance, will be appropriate for the office and a cocktail party," says Capobianco.
But much of what Banana Republic is offering in these stores is a cluster of services designed to enhance conveniences you may already own.
If you have a cellular phone, the Banana Republic concierge at the front of the store will recharge the battery for you while you shop.
If you bring in your PalmPilot (Palm III or more recent model, please) and want to know where, say, the chinos department is, you can give it to a shop assistant who, using the device's infrared port, will upload a directory and map of the store, as well as a map of the city and Banana Republic's "Do This" list. "It's a list of 10 things in the city we think are cool and interesting to do," says Capobianco.
Then there's what Capobianco refers to as "Old World hospitality" -- basic services that once were commonplace in many stores and now are unheard-of except in the most expensive. For instance, there's a coat- and bag-check. "This is especially important in New York City during the holiday season, when you have to lug around an overcoat and heavy shopping bag," she says.
In Santa Monica, there's to be free valet-parking service -- "no tipping allowed" -- starting in the first half of 2000. At New York's Rockefeller Center store, along with Manhattan's other 16 Banana Republic locations, purchases over $300 will be delivered anywhere in the city, at no charge, by one of Banana Republic's branded vehicles.
"We call it 'You shop, we drop,"' Capobianco says. "It's same-day delivery, guaranteed."
Drums along the river
Williams remains skeptical. "To make consumers really change their shopping habits, you need to offer new things that enable them save to money or time, that enhance the shopping experience, or that add an entertainment factor," she says. "These things really don't do that."
The PalmPilot service, Williams notes, would be truly useful if it could tell customers whether the items they want are on the shelves -- a feature she says some stores already use for inventory tracking. The cell phone charging, she feels, is unnecessary.
The coat-check and valet service, while nice, she says will probably prove to too expensive for Banana Republic to maintain and will eventually be phased out once the initial marketing hype has faded.
"They just want your hands free so you can pick up as much stuff as possible," Williams says.
"Then again, if you're turned off by these features, it's easy to ignore them."
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How One Clothing Giant Is Using the Latest Technology to Make Shopping More Interactive.
By Travis Neighbor Ward
