Grazia’s e-commerce site launches with 250 brands
Grazia has launched its standalone e-commerce platform, Graziashop.com, with over 20,000 products from 250 luxury brands, including House of Holland, Antipodium, and Victoria Beckham, with a number of high street labels set to join in the future.
Plans for the site were revealed in May this year but it has been under construction for the past two years, managing director of Graziashop.com, Richard Hatfield, told The Drum.
Explaining why the time was right for an e-commerce offering to its 17 million readers he pointed to the influence of the magazine.
“We’re in 23 countries. If a product is featured in the magazine then it more often than not will sell out. There is power in the brand.
“So this is a unique opportunity to create added value at a global level and to offer a complimentary proposition to Grazia [magazine].
The site has been launched from the UK – as “English is a universal language in shopping” – with global users able to change currency (sterling, euros and dollars) and delivery settings.
To fulfil deliveries it operates through its brand partners. When an item it purchased it is sent directly from the brand to any customers globally.
As expected, the site closely ties editorial with commerce. Standard tabs such as ‘New In’, ‘Designers’ and product categories sit alongside a content sections titled Daily Fix.
Features include ‘Trends’ and ‘Grazify Yourself’ – which showcases the style of Grazia editors from around the world – are shoppable. “It’s about creating a way to engage and interact with the product,” Hatfield said.
Although there is no advertising inventory on the site, Grazia’s head of new media, Dragana Andjic, revealed that there will be an opportunity for branded content features.
“We’re contemplating brand stories, collaborations, and special projects, further down the line,” she said.
The site also has a strong social element. ‘Fashion Stories’is a Pinterest-style platform which allows users to create shoppable moodboards from items available through Graziashop.com as well as their own images and inspiration from elsewhere online.
Several key fashion bloggers have been brought in to kick start the platform, with Hatfield explaining that the aim is for shoppers to generate and share their own content and shop from other people's curated collections.
Andjic said Graziashop.com is a unique offering, especially as it is a publisher entering retail rather than vice versa.
“Retailers have been quite quick to publish [content], but within the publishing world there is only one example which is similar to us [ShopBaazar.com from Harpers Bazarre] but it only covers the US.
“What we as a publishing industry do is work on affiliation as a connection to retail but with Graziashop.com we’re moving that forward. We’re enabling Grazia readers to stay within the Grazia ecosystem,” she said.
Retaining customers within this ecosystem will deliver valuable data which Hatfield says will help infuence what is featured on the site as well as help Grazia editors to understand key trends and products driving interest.
A personalisation drive in the future will see a ‘profile page’ opened up to users who wish to upload additional content while the homepage will eventually be tailored based on a user’s location.
To promote the site, Graziashop.com is turning to its sister magazines as well as rolling out a social and digital campaign devised by 7thingsmedia. Wider marketing activity – including a potential pop-up store – is in the works for 2015.
