SHOPSTYLE LAUNCHES INDUSTRY-LEADING ‘INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING FILTER’ TO CONNECT RETAILERS TO SHOPPERS ACROSS THE GLOBE

And at the same time expands into Europe with launches of local sites in both France and Germany.

LONDON – 14th September 2009.  Shopstyle.co.uk, the fashion site that brings together Britain’s favourite brands and stores under one digital roof, today launches an innovative international shipping filter instantly allowing shoppers across the world to shop products accessible to them. ShopStyle also announced their expansion into Europe with launches of local ShopStyle sites in France and Germany.

The launch of ShopStyle’s international shipping filter will open up worldwide retail opportunities, meeting the needs of an increasingly globalised fashion marketplace. 

Over half of all the shops on the existing ShopStyle sites ship outside of their local country and 27% ship worldwide. From today (14th September), these retailers on the ShopStyle sites in the US, UK and now France and Germany will become instantly available to a global audience hungry for prestigious American and European fashion brands. 

At the same time, ShopStyle’s fashion conscious consumers across the globe will now have the chance to easily find retailers that ship to their home country. This will mean that wherever you are in the world, you can access any one of ShopStyle’s sites and pick up unique French, German, UK and US brands, knowing that these companies will deliver to you.

ShopStyle launches this worldwide strategy in response to a growing demand from their users. Over 20% of all emails received by ShopStyle customer service and a quarter of the overall traffic to ShopStyle sites comes from outside of the US and UK, with regular visitors from Australia, Germany, France, Netherlands, China, Italy, Singapore, Mexico, Japan and the Philippines all in search of fashion that can be delivered to their door. 

The increased global focus coincides with the launch of new European sites, ShopStyle.fr and ShopStyle.de. These new sites will be offering local fashion brands and online retailers in both countries the opportunity to retail their collections to an international marketplace including over 3.5 million unique users across the UK and US ShopStyle sites. 

Shannon Edwards, Director Europe for ShopStyle, says: “With a significant need and demand from ShopStyle users outside of the US and UK, asking for a list of retailers that ship to them, we knew there was a need for a tool like the international shopping filter. With this technology, we can now offer retailers the chance to reach out to a global fashion marketplace, meaning that they can quickly and cost efficiently test new territories and generate sales.” 

“At the same time, our users throughout the world are able to go shopping in London, Paris, Berlin, LA or NYC at the click of a mouse,” she continues.

ShopStyle UK is creating waves in the UK ecommerce market with its focus on revolutionizing the way women shop online. Launched in September 2008, the site is developing rapidly. Only last month ShopStyle announced the launch of its home and living offering and ShopStyle powers shopping for Elle, InStyle, Marie Claire and iVillage online. The site also introduced three new features – MyBrands, ShopStyle 100 and Power Brands - designed to allow the user to create and personalize their desired shopping experience.

Press Release:  Shopstyle.co.uk, the fashion site that brings together Britain’s favourite brands and stores under one digital roof, is to launch ‘ShopStyle Mobile’, an iPhone application that recreates the unique ShopStyle shopping experience on your mobile. ShopStyle Mobile launches this week to offer style conscious shoppers the chance to shop on the move from over 2000 fashion, home and beauty brands, including Net-a-Porter, My Wardrobe, New Look, House of Fraser, John Lewis and many more.

The key features of ShopStyle Mobile include:

BROWSE - Browse the latest fashions by brand or category. You can scroll through multiple products at once or see each close-up in the gallery view.

SEARCH - Use the keyword search feature to search within the category you’re viewing or across all products.

FIND SALES - The sale filter shows only those items that are discounted. Available for all items, products within one category, or through a keyword search.

FILTER BY PRICE – So that you only see items within the price range you select.

BUY - Purchase directly from the retailer by tapping the “Buy” button to go straight to the shop’s purchase page.

EMAIL - Email your favourite products to your friends, your family, or yourself.

FAVOURITES - Save your favourite products with one click and view them all from your Favourites screen, then edit or email them.

SEE MORE - Find an item you like and want to see more like it? Tap the image, then click the "See More" button to see all products from the brand or retailers.

“The uptake of new touchscreen phones is phenomenal and increasing, with millions of people now using an iPhone.” says Shannon Edwards, Director, ShopStyle and no.16 in The Independent’s Online Fashion 100 most influential. “Creating a mobile application means that we are able to deliver our unique shopping facility to the growing number of touch phone users who, by the fact that they have invested in an iPhone, are a style conscious and tech savvy audience. These are just the type of users who love ShopStyle.”

ShopStyle UK is creating waves amongst the UK ecommerce market with its focus on revolutionizing the way women shop online. Launched in September 2008, the site is developing rapidly. Only last month ShopStyle announced the launch of its home offering as well as new deals to power the shopping for Marie Claire, iVillage UK and Woman and Home. The site also introduced three new features – MyBrands, ShopStyle 100 and Power Brands - designed to allow the user to create and control their desired shopping experience.

Press Release: ‘Context is King’ for new ShopStyle and mydeco partners

The UK’s leading women’s online destination iVillage.co.uk, part of NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies, is launching a new shopping strategy to partner with providers of tools and widgets that seamlessly integrate products within relevant content on the website. The move ensures shopping content, provided initially via deals with ShopStyle.co.uk and mydeco, is positioned in context for iVillage users to harness predicted growth in online shopping.

The solution enables thousands of high-street brands and niche products, aggregated by ShopStyle and mydeco, to be pulled into the content according to keywords and displayed within an ‘iVillage recommends’ carousel. The products will sit alongside relevant content across the pregnancy, parenting, diet and fitness, beauty and fashion content. The new shopping strategy, which allows users to discuss products with other users on review boards, will also run across the sister websites Kalimocho.co.uk and DietAnotherDay.co.uk. Food products are currently being considered to be made available for review and purchase within the food and drink channel.

Lulu Phongmany, business development and marketing manager, iVillage.co.uk, said: “We believe that context is king when it comes to harnessing the growth in online shopping and this new shopping strategy has been designed with that in mind. The technology behind our new shopping solution presents users with relevant products, available to buy within the context of the content they are consuming on the site.

“The new approach attempts to replicate the way that women talk about products with their girlfriends. In this scenario, iVillage.co.uk plays the role of the “girlfriend” who makes purchase recommendations within conversation. Fully integrated across our channels and complementing the site content, this fresh approach to e-commerce is an exciting development and is one that will form a new and innovative way to merchandise product on the site.”

The shopping strategy has been introduced to capitalise on the growth in online shopping forecast for 2009, and follows a recent website re-skin as part of an ongoing strategy to expand integrated marketing opportunities. ShopStyle aggregates products from more than 85 fashion and beauty retailers including Next, Miss Selfridge, House of Fraser and New Look. mydeco’s powerful database aggregates over three million products from 1000 home wares retailers, from big high street names to niche retailers including John Lewis, Dwell and Littlewoods.

Annabel Kilner, mydeco Business Development manager, said: “mydeco’s powerful search technology offers ivillage shoppers the UK’s most comprehensive and elegant database of home wares products, whilst letting us reach out to discerning lifestyle audiences with an interest in stylish homes and interiors. As one of UK’s more popular women’s sites, we look forward to working with iVillage.co.uk.

Shannon Edwards, Director, Europe, ShopStyle, said: “This partnership works. For ShopStyle’s portfolio of fashion brands and retailers, we are extending their reach to iVillage UK’s loyal users. For iVillage UK, we are enhancing and deepening their users’ experience and ultimately satisfaction. It’s a creative and innovative digital partnership that truly benefits all parties.”

Press Release:  ShopStyle.co.uk, the fashion site that’s revolutionising the way women shop online, is to power the fashion shopping for IPC Southbank websites marieclaire.co.uk and womanandhome.com.  The deal with IPC Southbank will enable womanandhome.com and marieclaire.co.uk to access over 2000 of Britain’s most desirable high street, designer and beauty brands on ShopStyle and use the site’s unique technology to search by colour, size, item, price, brand and designer.

The deal extends an already successful relationship between the two companies which began last year when ShopStyle began powering the shopping channel for Southbank’s Instyle.co.uk.

Users of both co-branded shopping services can also access ShopStyle’s unique social media applications, already proving popular with the fashion site’s existing half a million unique visitors. From wishlists and sales alerts to unique stylebooks and personalised favourite brands’ shopping experience, ShopStyle offers fashionistas the chance to create a personal collection that they can save, share and then click-through to buy.

In addition, Marieclaire.co.uk and womanandhome.com will enhance the ShopStyle offering with their own editorial sections, such as Buy of the Day and Editor’s Picks.

“We have established a great partnership with IPC Southbank,” says Shannon Edwards, Director of ShopStyle and no.16 in The Independent’s Online Fashion 100 most influential. “The Instyle.co.uk shopping channel has worked really well for both partners and we’re looking forward to extending this successful relationship with womanandhome.com and marieclaire.co.uk,” she continues. 

Roger Cummings, associate publisher of Marie Claire, says: “With this ShopStyle partnership, marieclaire.co.uk has an exciting new shopping channel that our visitors will love. This new addition boosts the site’s existing powerful mix of fashion, beauty and news, which makes marieclaire.co.uk the daily destination for fashion savvy women.”

Linda Swidenbank, publishing director of woman&home comments: “Women who love woman&home really appreciate good fashion and style advice and want to see  shopping ideas to inspire them. Whether it’s shape, season or trend related inspiration they are hugely responsive, so to be able to click and buy from our edited choice is a really exciting proposition.”