Imagine trying on clothes at the store without actually having to try them on. Imagine getting immediate feedback from your online friends that appears on your dressing room mirror. It’s called Social Retailing and we introduced it for hi-end fashion designer Nanette Lepore at Bloomingdale’s in Manhattan on March 15, 2007. The word-of-mouth market reaction was sensational (see results below.) and a new way of shopping was born, with all the personalization and social capabilities of the online world. Word of mouth spread rapidly and Nanette Lepore and Bloomingdale’s were the buzz of the web.

First we researched youth shopping habits: impulse shopping, seeking peer advice, snapping and sharing photos, IMing while shopping online, etc. These insights were then turned into “personas” that embodied typical Nanette Lepore customers. Modeling the behaviors of these personas, our team of designers and technologists worked to brainstorm, prototype and test various configurations in our in-house test facility, leading eventually to the Social Retailing concept as shown at Bloomingdales. The implementation itself involved hi-res photography of the entire Nanette Lepore line, RFID tagging all clothing items, constructing in-store architecture , coordinating press and PR activities, etc.

The promotion had several key measures of success:•The campaign reached an audience ofo82 global newspaperso30 trade journalso12 million blog readers •Media spend was but a single full page ad in the NY Times to drive traffic to store.•Same-day sales increased fourfold over previous year; •Bloomingdale’s cited in numerous trade articles for its “supercharged” approach to cultivating the youth market.•Web participation in the experience came from around the world including countries in Asia, Europe, U.K. and Latin America.