Promotional image for Spring app
Oscar de la Renta, Tamara Mellon and Carolina Herrera are prompting consumers to shop with them via their stores on a new mobile app Spring.
Spring is a fashion and beauty marketplace for both luxury and fast fashion, with each brand managing what products to put up and when. Becoming part of this mobile fashion aggregator will allow brands without another mobile-optimized shopping platform to gain sales from consumers on-the-go, while raising visibility for new arrivals for all labels involved.
“While there has been a lot of talk about ‘mobile shopping,’ there wasn’t the perfect experience to ‘go shopping’ on your phone,” said Ara Katz, CMO of Spring, Venice, CA.
“We found ourselves increasingly frustrated with downloading mobile shopping apps, visiting different sites and trying to check out,” she said. “So we created a mobile experience to shop the brands we love and discover new ones – all in one app.
“Spring is a marketplace where customers can shop directly from brands. Like their own store or site, brands control what products to post and when.
And unlike other shopping experiences, Spring’s community of brands reflect how we actually shop, from luxury labels to beauty, emerging designers to fast fashion. Plus, many brands on Spring are selling exclusives, limited editions, collaborations, one of a kinds and pieces from their archives – so there’s a lot you can’t find anywhere else.”
Spring ahead
Spring launched Aug. 14, and is available for free on the App Store for both iPhone and iPod touch.
The app requires users to register before they can browse. Once logged in with email or Facebook, the app provides a list of brands to browse and asks if the consumer would like to receive updates from Spring.
Screenshot of Spring app
Consumers have options of how to shop. The homepage is labeled “New” and includes a feed of recently added items.
Screenshot of Spring app
A “Discover” tab shows notable edits, which at press time featured exclusives to Spring, edits from the Web sites WhoWhatWear and Cool Hunting and a collection of pieces from designers who are Council of Fashion Designers of America members.
Screenshot of Spring app
Consumers can also browse through women’s and men’s apparel, lifestyle pieces or beauty categories.
Screenshot of Spring app
“Shops” brings up a list of brands, where consumers can either sort by most recently updated or alphabetically. The lists tell consumers when the last update was.
Each brand’s shop includes buttons for more information, which includes a link to its Web site, physical store locations and to receive updates from the brand’s newsletter. This may spur more sign ups, since consumers who have their email address tied to their Spring account only have to tap a button to subscribe, rather than entering information in fields.
Oscar de la Renta’s shop on Spring
Below these links is a “Spotlight” section, where brands can highlight items in their store with editorial images.
Carolina Herrera shop on Spring
Following is the ecommerce listing. On top of the photo for the item, a message appears telling consumers how many are left if it is almost sold out.
Tamara Mellon shop on Spring
Brands handle their own inventory, and Spring’s technology works with each brand’s own ecommerce system.
“On Spring, brands control what products to post, when to post, and how much inventory to make available,” Ms. Katz said. “We encourage brands to use lifestyle images rather than straight product shots, allowing them to share their brand story directly with customers.
“Brands on Spring benefit from the shared distribution and access to our highly qualified customer base, while still owning every aspect of the customer experience, from merchandising, to fulfillment and customer service,” she said.
Consumers can access their profile, which includes their loved items and the brands they follow on the site.
Tamara Mellon and Carolina Herrera reached out to their social audiences to drive traffic to their Spring shops, telling them to download the app to see their latest.
Oscar de la Renta invited consumers to “Shop on the go” with an email sent Aug. 15. In the body of the email was one pair of pumps available on the label’s store.
Email from Oscar de la Renta
The brand has ecommerce, but its site is not mobile optimized, so Spring will help it reach shoppers using a phone.
For Carolina Herrera and Tamara Mellon, which both have mobile sites, Spring will serve as an easier platform for consumers to keep up with new arrivals.
Lucchese, Michael Kors and Giambattista Valli are among the brands with shops coming soon.
Coming together
Apps that bring together a number of fashion brands give consumers one place to follow the fashion that interests them, while making purchases.
For instance, online retailer Moda Operandi has launched an iOS mobile application just in time for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York to give designers a platform to showcase their collections in a mobile commerce environment right after their runway shows.
The app includes the same features as the retailer’s Web site, allowing consumers to preorder from a designer’s collection through flash online trunk shows. By expanding its commerce to mobile, Moda Operandi will be able to reach fashionistas on-the-go, and engage with their consumers in another channel (see story).
Other multi-brand apps have focused more on engagement than sales.
The FashionLoyal application was released on the Apple iTunes Store for fashion enthusiasts to become better involved with their favorite apparel brands.
FashionLoyal allows global fashion fans to interact and engage with brands through a social currency. The app allows consumers to browse, share and shop in one location and gives brands a confined space to interact with consumers that will likely create a stronger bond (see story).
This new app reflects consumer shopping habits.
“Shoppers are now digital – whether that be through a branded Web site or mobile app, a department stores or flash sale e-tailers like Gilt Groupe and Beyond the Rack, not to mention the numerous other ways,” said Melody Adhami, president and chief operating officer of Plastic Mobile, Toronto.
“Spring is simply one more channel for brands to connect with shoppers but with the added benefit of inventory control,” she said. “This is without a doubt an attractive feature, as it allows luxury brands to effectively align product marketing strategies through the medium.”
Whether luxury consumers will download and use Spring or got to a brand’s own mobile commerce platform depends on what they are looking for.
“Luxury consumers that would rather go directly to the brand’s own ecommerce Web site are usually brand loyalists and/or know exactly what they want,” Ms. Adhami said. “At the same time though, there are a lot of consumers that are simply browsers and are more likely to download an app like Spring to discover new brands and products.
“And ultimately, if Spring can create a seamless shopping experience with great usability – they may even see consumers more likely to visit them than a brand’s Web site.”
Final Take
Sarah Jones, editorial assistant on Luxury Daily, New York