Digital snippets: adidas, Nars, Hermès, Cole Haan, Wall Street Journal, F-commerce

Some more great stories from around the web surrounding all things fashion and digital over the past week:

• adidas gives Facebook users personalised version of Ebenezer Snoop holiday campaign [PSFK]

• Nars creates a digital journey into the world of Andy Warhol [L2 Think Tank]

• Hermès launches on Tumblr and Pinterest [Hermès]

• Tumblr unveils accessories spotlight section sponsored by Cole Haan [Mashable]

• Wall Street Journal launches shoppable holiday gift guide [AdAge]

• F-commerce ‘too soon’ for retailers, says Facebook’s retail director [Marketing Magazine]

• The end of the smartphone era is coming thanks to computerised glasses [BusinessInsider]

• EyeSee store mannequins gather intelligence on shoppers [Gizmag]

• Ready to download your next pair of shoes? How 3D printing is turning bits into atoms [BusinessInsider]

• Facebook aims for luxury brands with study into how the rich use social [Econsultancy]

New start-up Tapestry gives shop floor a digital identity, signs Diesel as pilot partner

It goes without saying that mobile is set to play an ever-increasing role in the future of retail – be it for payment, loyalty and rewards, social content or more.

Enter then, Tapestry, a new start-up from the team behind London-based digital agency Guided Collective, that very nicely ties all those things together.

Launched in a pilot partnership with Diesel in the UK, this iPhone and Android app helps to provide shoppers with a 360 degree online-meets-offline experience.

Trialling at Diesel’s Westfield London store until December 21, it allows consumers to curate a collection of all the items they like as they shop by scanning existing barcodes (or by using NFC in enabled Android devices). From there, they can see information about each piece such as size, colour and price, as well as the digital content that surrounds it – expert reviews from bloggers for instance, alongside videos, runway shows and more.

In essence, it’s a physical or real-world bookmarking tool for the fashion industry.

Those bookmark sets – known as Tapestries of course – can then be shared across social networks, but better yet be bought straight from the smartphone too. There’s also the possibility for notifications on things like promotions and rewards.

Referring to itself as a mobile loyalty service, the Tapestry write-up reads: “On the one hand it links content and promotions directly to physical products via a consumer’s mobile. On the other hand it links all physical items in store to the retailer’s ecommerce site, re-shaping the retail experience both in and out of store.”

Simply put, it gives a retailer’s physical inventory a digital identity, something Sam Reid, founder of Tapestry, refers to as “joining up the dots”. Based on a cloud platform, it also does so simply and at scale, he explains. And the app is to be funded on that basis, with retailers paying a subscription fee for the service.

In addition, it gives retailers permission-based real-time access to consumer interests, and therefore data. “The user is saying ‘I’m interested in these shoes, this t-shirt and this dress. Let me know when they’re on sale, or if stock is close to selling out, or if you’ve some interesting content to share,” the Tapestry description explains.

It’s hoped more retailers will follow in Diesel’s footsteps, says Reid, suggesting others are already in talks. This makes the concept all-the-more interesting – rather than just being about one brand’s clothing items consumers might save and explore, it becomes about their entire shopping trip. Imagine being able to recall everything you’ve seen, read reviews around them, and pick and choose which ones you want to buy at a later date. It’d certainly simplify those occasions when you regret something you should have purchased and you can’t find it online.

Another interesting part for the future will be seeing this app develop alongside NFC. With this, consumers only need to tap items (hence the clever Tapestry name) to bring them up on their phone – effortless. As this technology becomes more commonplace across devices, that behaviour is likely to see a huge spike in uptake in the retail space, blurring the digital and physical lines ever more.

It’s worth checking out blogger Liberty London Girl’s exclusive link up with Diesel for the Tapestry launch too. And watching the video demonstrating Tapestry in action, below:

Infographic: millennial shoppers and their online influences

Forewillow*, a new Ohio-based ‘re-commerce’ start-up, has just released an infographic about millennial shoppers that’s sprinkled with some interesting facts. It outlines that 28.5% of the US population, or those classified as millennials (born from the early 80s to early 00s), will have more buying power than any other generation by 2017.

It also suggests they are 16% more likely to explore brands online than non-millennials (top clothing labels include Forever 21, H&M, Gap, Levi’s, Express and Nike), and that 64% of them want brands to offer them more ways to share their opinions online.

Already, 60% of them spend time creating user-generated content such as reviews, compared to just 29% in other generations. And 42% of them say they’ll share positive and negative feedback via social media channels before going directly to the company themselves.

See the whole thing, below…

*Forewillow invites users to sell bundles of clothes to others who share their size and style – doing so enables them to earn virtual currency to buy their own bundles from someone else. It aims to target millennials who are “fashion conscious but not designer obsessed”, and help them “live in today’s ‘one and done’ fashion mindset without breaking the bank”. Find out more here.

#smwf: New Look’s closed community policy aims to encourage engagement

Amid a wealth of discussion on online community building at the second day of the Social Media World Forum (#smwf) in London today, it was particularly interesting to hear of the strategy being run by UK high street retailer New Look.

Oliver Lucas, head of consumer insight and CRM, explained how despite being a mass market store, New Look operates a “closed community”, called myLook (launched 2009), whereby fans have to apply to be a member.

Doing so, he said, enables the company to get the most from its ‘fans’. Creating this barrier to entry makes consumers feel like there’s something special behind those doors, therefore they become more eager to be there and more willing to actively participate when they are, he explained.

Accordingly, the official spiel on the myLook intro site reads: “At New Look we believe that fashion should be enjoyed by everyone and to help us ensure that everything we do is designed for you, we are inviting those who think they have a real passion for fashion to apply to be a member of this very special community of likeminded people.”

It continues: “Inside you will be able to share your views, suggest improvements, connect directly with New Look and the community and tell us what’s right and wrong in the world of fashion and have a genuine visible effect on the high street.”

That latter part,the “geniune visible effect”, Lucas also picked up on, saying the idea of maintaining a closed community is to make those involved feel more empowered. “If there’s 150,000 members, could I really make a difference?” he asked. Opting for a smaller number instead, he said, encourages engagement.

Participants are selected based on two criteria – whether they fit into the segmentation the retailer is trying to fulfill, and whether they respond to the (open) questions on application in a manner that suggests they will bring something valuable, interesting or even frequent to the equation. One word responses to the questionnaire won’t quite cut the mustard here then.

“So are they the right type of customer and how likely are they to contribute is what we consider,” Lucas explained. Roughly one in every four gets in.

We’re not trying to be exclusive, just very specific in our purpose,” he added – (you get a polite email of decline if you don’t match up).

He went on to express that despite these entry requirements, the intention of the ‘club’ is to make people feel comfortable. “Fashion can feel quite exclusive and therefore intimidating,” he said. “New Look is not about that and therefore our community is not either.”

Unfortunately, they don’t allow in journalists…