Procter & Gamble has teamed up with e-commerce services leader PFSweb to pilot an online store this month. Called the eStore, the online shopping site will be owned and operated by PFSweb and will exclusively sell P&G products to consumers in the U.S. The eStore is planned to launch this Spring, following a pilot of the site with 5000 consumers that will begin in the coming weeks.
“We are very excited about the eStore’s potential to reach more consumers and create new online experiences and innovations that build our brands online,” said Kirk Perry, P&G’s vice president for North America. “Ultimately, our goal in working with an experienced e-commerce business like PFSWeb is to test concepts and programs that can be reapplied with all of our online retail partners in ways that exponentially grow consumer affinity for our brands and mutually increase sales for P&G and our retailer partners.”
“As the growth in consumer web commerce continues to evolve, we areseeing a strong trend towards the broadening of consumer purchase interests into more product categories,” said Mark Layton, PFSweb’s CEO. “With each new product category comes the opportunity to develop and test marketing, selling and retention concepts. In working with P&G on our eStore, we’re looking forward to uncovering new insights and innovations that deliver on the potential of e-commerce as a powerful sales channel for a wide range of consumer products.”
P&G initiated the eStore concept and has been working its ideas for test concepts and programs with PFSweb. Product pricing, promotion, shelving and distribution will be at the sole discretion of PFSweb. P&G will work closely with PFSweb to identify new concepts, programs and marketing efforts to test via the eStore.