In the fashion and retail industry, New York Fashion Week (NYFW) is the biggest event of the year. It’s an opportunity for leading brands to showcase a year of planning, designing, and producing on the highly-coveted and elite runway. But providing access to the masses is tricky; brands want to maintain a sense of exclusivity, while still encouraging loyal shoppers to be a part of the NYFW experience. For the next two weeks we’ll share insightful information on how cosmetics, accessories, footwear, and fashion brands can leverage interactive and shoppable content to make New York Fashion Week accessible all. Whether your brand is showcased at NYFW or not, you’ll get ideas for how to take advantage of this important event through rich, accessible, and engaging digital experiences.
Fashion: New York & Company
This interactive, immersive, and fully shoppable experience by New York & Company is a perfect example of just what is possible with the right tools and team. With integrated video clips allowing shoppers to see the clothes in motion on the runway, it’s a powerful way to present New York Fashion Week to the consumer. As shoppers peruse the collection, they can click the shoppable images to add items directly to cart. Incredibly, this experience was created and launched within three hours of the last model walking down the runway. This instant availability is a game changer in an industry that is built on speed and agility. Loyal shoppers have access to items seen in the runway show within the same day, without missing a beat – and incredibly, they can immediately buy those items, too. Experiences like this remove the barrier between the exclusivity of NYFW and the average brand consumer.
Footwear: Aerosoles
New York Fashion Week is an exciting and dynamic live experience, but it’s easy to lose this when translating the event to a static web page. Integrating rich and multimedia content ensures that shoppers feel that same thrill they would have if they were sitting first row on the runway. A great example of multimedia content is footwear retailer Aerosoles’ seasonal experience. To immerse the customer in the experience, Aerosoles uses embedded videos that are seamlessly woven into the content. Plus, clickable shop-the-look gifs add a fun sense of surprise that resonates with the millennial market. When it comes to shoes, it’s not enough to have a flat product image; to give shoppers inspiration on how a heel can be styled, interactive and immersive multimedia content is essential. When planning your own 2017 NYFW experience, try integrating shoppable video and gifs, like Aerosoles did, to show how well the shoe completes the collection, without losing the excitement of the live runway show.
Cosmetics: Deborah Lippmann
It’s not just about the collection anymore; the styling of runway models is now just as talked about as the clothes. New York Fashion Week is a chance for cosmetics and beauty brands to showcase their products live, rather than on the flat pages of a magazine. When translating this to a digital experience, it’s important to maintain that sense of reality. Embedded tutorial videos with behind-the-scenes footage bring valuable content to the customer while giving them exclusive access to the runway. Deborah Lippmann does a great job integrating this educational video content in their eCommerce site. Consumers can discover how to recreate the runway looks they love while simultaneously learning about the Deborah Lippmann product line. We love how all the nail designs featured are completely shoppable, allowing customers to easily add to cart without being forced to leave the experience. Including company co-founder Deborah Lippmann herself adds a personal touch, creating that authentic connection all brands strive for.
Accessories: Henri Bendel
Accessories like handbags and jewelry can often seem like an afterthought on a runway, but they truly do pull a look together. After your runway show, make it easy for your brand-loyal shoppers to find their favorite pieces worn by the show models. On your eCommerce site, featuring photos directly from your show along with easy-to-navigate banners and carousels will make the purchase process efficient and simple. No one does shoppable carousels to showcase exclusive products like Henri Bendel. With integrated quickviews, customers can quickly find and fall in love with a purse and can complete the purchase without ever leaving the page. To make the most of these tools with NYFW, they can include runway video clips with the completed outfits to make the transition from runway to screen seamless. And this is not just for Henri Bendel. Whether your brands are on the NYFW runway or not, you can make sure your brands’ accessories don’t get ignored in the shuffle of other products by keeping them at the forefront of your digital experiences.