Online Shopping Trends|Shoppable Content|Zmags New
Making The Runway Shoppable in 3 Hours… Without Coding
Sharing perspectives on the latest trends and tips to help eCommerce brands stay ahead to engage and drive revenue.
Fashion has always been an industry built on trends, and through social media people are exposed to them faster than ever via their favorite brands and celebrities. Before, it was red carpets and runway shows scattered throughout the year; now Instagram and Twitter allow us to see new styles daily. Combine that with our need for instant gratification (Amazon Prime, Netflix, etc), and the result is a desire for fresh content: when a new trend, clothing line, or product comes out, people are made aware instantly, and want it just as fast. But New York Fashion Week presents an interesting problem. It’s an exclusive, live event – how do you translate this to a digital experience, without losing the excitement of the show? And once the runway show is available, how do you enable loyal customers, who are immersed in this interactive experience and excited for the new collection, to purchase the new line instantly? New York & Company VP of Digital and Ecommerce Creative Paul Carroll knew that there was incredible value in releasing both the show and the clothing immediately after the show wrapped in a creative, immersive experience. With Zmags Creator, he and his team had it live a mere three hours after the show. Here’s how they did it: Days in advance – Wireframe/storyboarding 6:25pm – Live Runway show 7:30pm - Received runway stills from fashion photographer 8:00pm - Added runway imagery and commerce functionality to the experience 8:30pm - Received 5 min video edit of the salon show 8:45pm - Embedded video in Creator experience using Youtube widget 9:00pm - Experience was pushed Live, and email was deployed to customers announcing the show The result? A seamless commerce-enabled experience, published a mere three hours after the event wrapped. Customers feel immersed in the show, and have a front-row seat to the newest collection that they can now purchase effortlessly. “Since every NY&C woman can’t attend our NYFW Eva Mendes Salon Show, we wanted to quickly deliver as real an experience for her as we could, while making it all shoppable," said Paul. "We want her to feel connected to the high energy of NYFW! And we were first in the week to present 'see-now buy-now.' Which was a huge trend for a lot of brands this year."