What paid off were noticeable improvements to customer service. Bass says his online team is small (though he declined to say how small). So when he decided to add more features, like personalization and a product search engine to the website, he looked for help. "It’s hard for us to both come up with new concepts for the site and do it ourselves. We always need outside help," Bass says.

In October 1998, Lands’ End partnered with My Virtual Model, a Montreal-based software company whose "virtual modeling" engine gave Lands’ End visitors a chance to try on clothes without having to order them first. The equity and affiliate marketing partnership is indicative of the company’s approach to its online strategy, Bass says. "We saw an opportunity to provide a new service to customers," he says. "Partnerships are important to any business, but they have to be based on solid business models." Bass’s development team worked in concert with My Virtual Model’s developers to make sure the modeling technology was placed conveniently?but not prominently?on the Lands’ End site. "At the end of the day, people come to our site to buy our clothes, not play with our partner’s technology," he says.

Creating and nurturing a close relationship with a partner like My Virtual Model is imperative, Bass says, because such relationships are more beneficial for customer service. As a result, the company’s online partners often move in to Lands’ End offices for months at a time to ensure good communication.

The partnership is equally important for My Virtual Model, which started the relationship as a provider of custom-built Web designs. With the support and urging of Lands’ End, My Virtual Model changed its business model and became a software provider. Lands’ End executives "are true partners on many levels," says Yona Shtern, chief marketing officer for My Virtual Model. "We know their outstanding commitment is to customer service, and our solution has to be complementary. That doesn’t happen with memos; it happens when both teams work together in unison."

One reason the Lands’ End site has been profitable since 1997 is that company executives don’t treat the site as a new business, Bass says. "We never say that traditional business rules don’t apply, because they absolutely do," he says.

Bass says he shoots for one major partnership a year whose contribution to the site will reset the bar on how people shop online. So far, the site as partnered with Quickdog, a provider of personalization software, and EasyAsk, a search engine. Lands’ End beta tests the new technology, and if it works, the new feature gets promoted online and in the Lands’ End catalogs. But the deal isn’t free. "We’ve made our partners successful, and we’ve given them a lot of free PR. And in return we ask for a period of exclusivity on their technology and an equity investment in our company," Bass says.