Barneys.COM recieved a facelift with new social features on Thursday. For a department store that prides itself in being a trendsetter, its e-commerce website is lacking in everything from merchandise assortment to social shopping features. Online shopping is a growing market that is getting more crowded everyday: net-a-porte has over the years been joined by competitors like matches.com, shopbop.com which offer International shipping at competitive rates. Even Saks Fifth Avenue, a New York luxury department store that has a relatively conservative image compared to Barneys, has a more international shopper friendly e-commerce webite. Barneys.com's facelift has been overdue for years...but later is better than never
Extract from "Barneys.com Gets a New Look", www.wwd.com
“It’s a huge emphasis for us as a company,” said Daniella Vitale, chief merchant, executive vice president and general merchandise manager of women’s merchandising and barneys.com. “It represents one of the biggest opportunities in terms of revenue growth and market share. We wanted to create a completely dynamic and very emotional experience, which we couldn’t do with the old site.”
To that end, Barneys worked with digital agency Huge to retool its online presence. In collaboration with Barneys’ in-house team, they developed a cleaner aesthetic that mainly serves to highlight available product. Barneys sought to simplify the navigation process for visitors, and registered users can now shop with as few as two clicks.
Similar to Twitter or Facebook, shoppers can “favorite” items they like, and their selection will then appear on a personal list through a new “Favorites” tool. They can share the list through social-media platforms Facebook, Twitter, The Fancy or Pinterest. Based on their picks, Barneys will also propose items that these customers could like.
“With the list and things that you favor — it could be a designer, it could be a shoe — we will be able to tell your shopping patterns and recommend anything from a shoe size to a brand,” Vitale noted.
Effective Monday, the site will feature special lists by celebrities, fashion personalities and other tastemakers. For the launch, these include favorite lists from Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Julianne Moore, stylist Leslie Fremar, Katie Holmes and her co-designer Jeanne Yang, and chefs Melia Marden from The Smile and Michael Chernow from Meatball Shop.
The “Most Loved” feature displays the most trending items of the moment, which are measured against users “favoriting” pieces. “Exclusively Ours” informs visitors of items exclusive to Barneys, while “The Window” adds an editorial context to the site with information about art, lifestyle, culture, fashion and initiatives related to Barneys that can be linked back to the designer merchandise for sale.
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