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.

Here’s how it worked. Instead of the traditional media spend we invested in a single full page NY Times Ad to drive traffic to Bloomingdale’s. From this point the mirror itself took over and word spread rapidly. From the ShopTogetherLive website, Web viewers around the world corresponded with the in-store shopper via IMs and clothing suggestions; which was viewed by not only the Bloomingdale’s customer but by curious crowd who gathered to see the “magic mirror”. By word-of-mouth, Social Retailing reached multiple media outlets and became a topic of bloggers worldwide.

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.