Saks to Pump Up Exclusive Offering

Saks Inc. (New York) plans to add more exclusive lines to its luxury offering in an effort to drive sales and grab more market share, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Exclusive merchandise comprises one-tenth of specialty department store’s assortment. Several new product lines planned for 2010 and beyond will increase that exclusive offering to closer to 20 percent. “It’s incumbent on us not to be just a place where you can buy the big brands,” Saks ceo Stephen Sadove told The Journal. “Those brands are still critical – the Chanels, the Pradas the Guccis – but even within those brands, we need to find things that are unique to us.”

This week, Saks reported a narrower fourth-quarter loss than expected, with revenue declining 3.4 percent to $811.3 million, while same-store sales dropped 4.8 percent.