Another day, another flash sale, right? Not so with Rue La La, which recently created a custom application that allowed Facebook fans to vote on a series of potential items from designers like Kate Spade, Betsey Johnson, Judith Ripka, BCBGMAXAZIRIA, D&G, Michael Kors, L.A.M.B, 7 For All Mankind, and Fendi. The 24 highest-rated picks then became available on the site for 48 hours (sale ends early Saturday, if you want to check it out!).
As simply having a social presence is now par for the course for most brands, those who actually involve customers in creative or business decisions deserve high marks for their flexibility, adaptability and understanding that is is the social customer who truly owns today’s fashion and retails brands.
The idea of crowdsourcing product picks isn’t new, ModCloth’s “Be The Buyer,” and Moxsie’s #Buyerchat, for example, both incorporate customer feedback to help make smart business (and inventory) decisions, but this is the first example of such an effort in the increasingly impacted flash sales space.
While the overall purpose of the promotion was, of course, to allow customers to curate a boutique specific to their liking (and therefore encourage greater affinity and sales for those products!), Rue La La also mimicked the fast-paced nature of flash sales in general by making the voting only available to fans for 48 hours. They were then tasked with getting the word out and driving as much activity as possible in a very short time, which they did by promoting the Vote for Style Boutique application through email newsletters, promotions on RueLaLa.com, social media communications and dedicated outreach efforts.
Promotion was successful, and the application received received thousands of votes and increased page likes, which now stand at close to 145k. Marketing Manager Dani Incropera added, “[We’re] most excited that fans had the opportunity to work so closely with Rue La La in curating a boutique customized to their liking.”
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