The way of the future for eCommerce? Editorialising!
If you are reading this, you probably already know how much we love fashion. You almost definitely know how much we love e-commerce. If you don’t, now you do, and you can probably understand our excitement when we talk about bringing together fashion reporting and e-commerce. Paul Livinston recently ran an article with The Genteel covering precisely this topic; and what we are seeing, is the coming of a new age of fashion editorials. How often have you been reading your choice fashion mag, and you come across some stunning model in some stunning outfit and (much to the confusion of the man next to you on the tube) whispered to yourself, “I WANT that dress…”
Although we haven’t updated to Minority Report style papers, we do have iPads. And other than that feeling of cold metal and glass on your fingertips, really, what’s the difference? Now we can look at that stunning model in the stunning outfit and go right ahead and buy it, with just a click or a tap. This bright future for e-commerce can be seen on websites like eLuxe and Purple, where the line between fashion writing and fashion selling is becoming ever more blurry… and we love it.
Says Livingston, “It’s a veritable evolution of standard mail order catalogues.” With eLuxe, the site is mostly an online shop, not entirely unconventional, but their magazine features articles and photo shoots with buttons like ‘Read & Shop,’ and ‘Shop the Shoot,’ where the reader is led directly to a pre-made shopping list of all the items featured. Imagine if Vogue or Lula didn’t just tell you where to get the stunning dress, or how much it costs, but also directly linked you to the purchase? While expecting larger publications to roll out this feature might require some red-tape chopping, independent blogs like Style Bubble could easily add links like these. So c’mon Susanna! Don’t just show appreciation, drive traffic! It is the future… Just ask Yazid Aksas, the man behind Sharpmen.com:
“As a man, if I read about or watch a great product, I don’t want to find out where I can buy it, go there, get it, etc. I just want to press ‘Buy’ and be done with it.”
Well said Mr. Aksas, well said…