I am curious about the operation philosophy of the powerful website. I
have already read the annual report of The Limited Inc., the parent
company of Victoria's Secrest. I already know some superficial facts
about the website. For example, it is one of the most profitable site
anywhere, and it attracts customers come back again and again.
I want to know more about the operation. For example, I want to know
the position of the website, especially accompanying the real stores.
The marketing strategy, the financial numbers such as ROI and ARPU,
the marketing numbers such as the return rate of customers. That would
be great if there were a case study for the subject.

Greetings, opc!

Victoria's Secret is a part of The Limited Inc. and Intimate Brands
Inc., a huge set of companies specializing in clothing and fragrance
items.

Numerous case studies on aspects of Victoria's Secret and Limited
Brands are available online:


From TIBCO Company, which provides computer applications and database
functionality for Limited Brands:
http://www.tibco.com/resources/customers/thelimited.pdf

This is an Acrobat .pdf document. If you do not already have Acrobat
installed on your PC, you can download the free Acrobat Reader here:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html


A case study from Scene 7, the company which provides imaging
capability for catalog items on the company's website:
http://www.scene7.com/clients/victoriassecret.asp


A page by the SAS Institute on their Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) Software says:
"SAS for Customer Relationship Management helps identify the right
customers for specific marketing campaigns that result in
multi-channel shopping, leading to a 400-percent return on investment
[ROI] in a pilot test for the Victoria's Secret e-commerce site."
http://www.sas.com/news/success/limited.html


You can read the contents of the article which appeared in the June
13, 2001 issue of Direct Marketing News, "The Limited/Intimate Brands
Mailer Seduces Shoppers to New Channels" by Melissa Campanelli, Senior
Editor:
http://www.sas.com/industry/retail/dmnews.pdf


From Information Week: "Turning Browsers Into Buyers; Victoria's
Secret is using online marketing-analysis services from Coremetrics
Inc. to track shoppers and find out what drives sales", by Rick
Whiting (July 31, 2002):
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020731S0005


From Akamai Technologies Inc, which provides the server system for
Victoria's Secret's e-commerce enterprise: "Victoria’s Secret Web Site
Raises the Bar on Customer Experience with Content Delivery from
Akamai and IBM; Akamai Delivers Record Traffic, Improved Performance,
and $1,000,000 in Infrastructure Savings"
http://developer.akamai.com/pdf/CS_VS.pdf


From Web Hosting Magazine's March 2000 Issue:
"Case Study 3
Victoria's Secret's Fashion Show 2000
Duration: 25 minutes 
Audience: 2 million 
Cost: $10 million 
Viewers' Lost Productivity: $120 million (in corporate America,
estimate)
Goal: Raise money for AIDS research..."
You can read the rest of the article here:
http://www.whmag.com/content/0301/streamingcash/page5.asp


From Business 2.0's online newsmagazine:
"Website Stress Tests Grow Up: Victoria's Secret learned the
importance of stress-testing the hard way. But today, a slew of
technology firms are competing to help keep your Website open for
business", by Elizabeth Hurt (March 20, 2001)
http://www.business2.com/articles/web/0,1653,15583,FF.html


From the Wick Hill Group: "Victoria's Secret Cannes 2000 Fashion Show
Webcast: Using Global Load Balancing and Image Caching to Ensure
Customer Satisfaction"
http://www.wickhill.com/press/full_news.asp?288;


From SpiderSplat Consulting, who partnered with VS to create their
Fall 2000 catalog:
http://www.spidersplat.com/clients2.htm


There is a wide range of other free case study information for
Victoria's Secret available on the web using the searches listed
below.


In addition, there are fee-based resources available as well:

If you go to Wilson Internet's E-Commerce Research Room at
http://www.wilsonweb.com/cat/cat.cfm?page=1&subcat=ca_Apparel
and enter "Victoria" in the "Basic Database Search" box and click
"Go", you will see citations of several applicable case studies. This
website requires a $49.95 annual subscription to access them.

The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) sells
their "Best Practices in Communication Planning and Implementation
featuring 2001 Gold Quill Award-Winning Case Studies" including
Victoria's Secret for:
Manual (Member price)           $175.00    
Manual (Nonmember price)        $210.00 
PDF Download (Member price)     $130.00    
PDF Download (Nonmember price)  $160.00 
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/iabcstore/bespracincom.html


Search Strategy

"Victoria's secret" "case study"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22Victoria%27s+secret%22+%22case+study%22&btnG=Google+Search&filter=0

"Limited Brands" "case study"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22Limited+Brands%22+%22case+study%22&btnG=Google+Search&filter=0


Before Rating this Answer, if you have any questions about the
information I have presented, please post a Request for Clarification,
and I will see what I can do for you.
  
I hope that this Answer provides you with exactly the information you
are seeking!

Regards,  
  
aceresearcher

Great answers. Thanks very much. I learned a lot from that.