Belk plays catch-up with shopping site

Talk about a makeover. After years with a limited Internet presence, Belk has rolled out a Web site that allows shoppers to browse and buy clothes, shoes, housewares, beauty products and accessories.

Before Thursday, the Charlotte department store chain's Web site offered only gift card and gift registry features and sold a small selection of home goods.

But as other retailers, including Belk's primary competitors, transformed their Web sites to sell merchandise -- often more than was available in stores -- Belk.com became as outmoded as a leisure suit and acid-washed jeans.

Now the nation's largest privately held department store chain says its cyber self is as current as the latest fashions on the sales floor.

"We think now it's going to position us for significant growth on the Web," Belk spokesman Steve Pernotto said. "There's a lot of business to be done."

Even as the economy has stalled, Internet retail is booming. U.S. online sales grew 21 percent last year, to $175 billion, or 6 percent of total sales. Sales are expected to increase to $204 billion this year, the National Retail Federation said.

Though they were initially slow to catch on, traditional department stores have moved in recent years to increase their share, said retail analyst Kim Picciola with Morningstar. Dillard's, Nordstrom, Macy's and J.C. Penney all have robust Web operations.

The sites are not just a tool for online shopping, but a marketing mechanism that increases brand awareness and trips to bricks-and-mortar stores.

"They're trying to create their own community among customers," Picciola said. "Given the world we live in, it's going to be critical for retailers to have a dependable presence and a dependable site online."

The new Belk.com was more than a year in the making, and Pernotto cautioned that designers may have concerns to work out. "We're trying to look at the sea legs and make sure it's sturdy," he said.

Sept. 29 will be the site's official launch, he said, and Belk will promote the site in stores and ads.

Belk expects the site to add to existing business and not draw too much from existing stores, Pernotto said. Even the old Web site drew orders from outside of the company's 16-state footprint, and the new site should prove convenient for time-strapped shoppers.

The company realized the potential of the Web and would have liked to improve its site years earlier, Pernotto said, but it was slowed by the acquisitions of Profitt's and McRae's and Parisian department store chains in the past three to four years.

"It takes a lot of effort, a lot of time and a lot of work to do that and do it right," he said. "If you start trying to do too many things, you stand a chance of dropping the ball."

However, those purchases have made the company better known outside of its traditional home base and should help Belk market itself and the Web site more effectively, he said. "We had to make a choice, and that's what we did," he said. "We think it's going to be exciting for the customer."