Going Virtual

A new online clothing company called Grape Apparel has opened it's virtual doors and have a site full of wine related shirts, hats, mugs, and countless other products. Their designs are all done in house and currently they have verital, regional and novelty works. I particularly like Que Syrah, Syrah!, Vini, Vidi, Vino [I came, I saw, I drank wine] and Have a Grape Day.

This looks like a good time to get into the clothing market based on a report from Forrester Research for Shop.org. Forrester polled 170 retailers and concluded that Americans last year spent $18.3 billion for apparel, accessories and footwear versus $17.2 billion for computer gear. The results indicate that shoppers' embrace of online apparel sites is just beginning, because just 10% of all clothing sales were expected to have taken place online compared to about 41% of computer equipment sales currently done via the web.

Grape Apparel is also using a very smart virtual business model using free online services such as CafePress and Blogger [which the Corner also uses] to run the bulk of the business operations from. This allows them to focus on the design aspect of their apparel company, which currently is planning 200 more designs by the end of the year. I can't wait to see what they can come with next. Keep up the grape work!