Nicole Miller has chosen BareNecessities.com as its exclusive partner to sell its Nicole Miller Signature lingerie online this Spring.

While this may not seem like earth shattering news at first, some of the implications of a developing trend are immensely important.

Instead of teaming with a large brand presence such as Saks, Bloomingdales or Nordstrom’s, Nicole Miller has gone with the lesser known brand BareNecessities.com.

Why?

Shmuly Tennenhaus blogged on this partnership yesterday and I spoke with him this morning to get his thoughts. He keenly pointed out that BareNecessities is 100% focused for the online marketing space. The company has about 60 people focused on this market, whereas a major brand such as Nieman Marcus might have one or two people devoted exclusively to their online efforts for lingerie.

So, in this case Nicole Miller is selecting a company focused exclusively in the online space of lingerie selling to promote it’s Spring line. Seems like a no-brainer, but this does represent a sea change in how major offline brands are viewing their online efforts. Rather than going with a nationally recognized brand such as Bloomingdales, by picking an online specialty business Nicole Miller is pointing to the power of niche in terms of quantity and quality.

It is interesting to think out the long term ramifications if major offline brands such as Nicole Miller, begin to turn to the smaller, yet more focused online shops for their online marketing needs.