Just in Time for Black Friday, Lucky Magazine Gets More ‘Actionable’
Fashion magazine Lucky has rolled out a new site that lets readers locate, get specs, and/or buy the products featured within its pages.
Partnering with loyalty shopping network Mall Networks, the site will include 100,000 fashion items from 450 brands. They’ll be featured in daily picks from editors as well as searchable by category, designer, price range or specific stores.
Lucky will include info on where to get these products online as well as nearby physical stores. The latter is fitting for the holiday shopping season and the immediacy sometimes involved. But the former has some appeal in avoiding crowds and seeking out online bargains. The site will draw affiliate revenues for purchases as well as ad revenues.
This follows Lucky’s “At Your Service” iPhone app rolled out earlier this year by NearbyNow. As we said at that time, this is a great way to add an actionable component to the magazine content. It’s a service to readers while having implications for advertisers. This is especially true with editorial content that orbits major retail categories, such as fashion and apparel.
The new retail Web site is created in the same vein, and we expect it will be a model for many struggling traditional media companies — starting with magazines but possibly moving into other areas. Mobile will be an important component.
2010 will be a year of testing for magazines in this space. It’s my sense that while NearbyNow provides a much-needed concierge element, Mall Networks provides a different spin on the shopping experience that is closer to cult favorites like Farmville.
The killer application will probably be a loyalty program that is able to track the delivery of content and service across multiple touchpoints: how much you spend, who you recommend, which stores you shop, which credit cards you use, etc — while providing merchants with unique perspectives on their best customers and how to service them more efficiently without giving away the store.