Carol Spieckerman

Social Shopping Climbers

March 5, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
Social shopping websites such as Gilt.com, Hautelook, RueLaLa and Woot are the hot new thing in retailing, combining limited time sales with fashion and home goods from top luxury designers and unique boutique brands. Do you think this is a model that established luxury retailers may adapt for their own purposes?      [more...]

This model would be a natural for luxury brands and particularly for the big luxury brand stables (Gucci, LVMH) and even middle of the road players such as Liz Claiborne and Vanity Fair that are weighting their portfolios toward pure brand marketing plays and owned retail versus cumbersome, inventory-laden wholesale models. Social shopping would allow these companies to directly marketing a "virtual world of brands" to loyal customers, gain valuable data about them and control promotions in the process.

The rub is that, as Gilt and the rest gain momentum, they are already working out exclusives with major luxury brands; jumping into their own social shopping ventures would have them wresting those brands back. One of the brand biggies should buy the cow (a social shopping platform).