For too long now, fashion brands haven’t had consumers ‘queuing up’ to buy fashion goods online as successfully as in the electronics or book markets have. The way we spend on clothing seems to be too distant to how we now buy other goods online. The thought that goes into buying an item of clothing is much more personal that say, choosing a new stereo. We are happy to read the reviews and opinions of fellow online shoppers, albeit strangers when searching for the best deal on a new television, but when it comes to a new dress or a new pair of shoes, it becomes something much more private and subjective to personal taste.
This now seems likely to change dramatically with the advent of online ‘dressing room experiences’ such as the newly launched couturious.com. Couturious has been launched by the owners of retail search engine like.com and seems to be the nearest thing we’re likely to see to a fashion website creating the personal experience of buying fashion goods online.
The site is currently in its Beta stage, but the potential shown is obvious. The brands that are currently involved is some what limited but chief executive officer of like.com, Munjal Shah plans to roll in many more brands by the end of the year. “More is always better” he says.
All the key elements to make this a hugely successful online fashion tool for such a wide demographic are there. The easy to navigate styles and ‘top looks’ give you a great ideas of how much can be achieved by any given user, the function to share via Facebook is perfect for that all important litmus test with friends and family and the growing number of brands involved means that the opportunity to mix and match items from all over the High Street in one place is a vast improvement to the experience we (I especially) have to endure nearly every Saturday afternoon!
The growing number of brands who plan to bring their lines to Couturious will also strike a deal to use this technology on their own websites, spreading the experience of the online dressing room right across the web in the coming months.