Fashion Magazine launched a new shopping portal Monday that features clothing and accessories selected by its editors.
Called Fashion Shopping, the site currently boasts about 1,500 items from high-end labels like Proenza Schouler, Alexander Wang and Maison Martin Margiela with links to purchase on partnering e-commerce sites like Net-A-Porter and FarFetch.com.
Though the St. Joseph Media-owned magazine is not disclosing the terms of the revenue sharing deal it has with its partner retailers, it will take a portion of each sale that occurs via the site, opening up a new revenue stream for the magazine.
“It’s no secret that the advertising business has become a turbulent one,” said Angie McKaig, director, digital lifestyle brands at St. Joseph Media. “I believe it’s hard to run any business with a single revenue stream, particularly when that revenue stream is subject to the kind of sweeping change we’ve seen in print and online advertising. Fashion Shopping is a way for us to begin to diversify revenue streams and provide a solid foundation for future growth.”
Fashion Shopping also intends to launch a beauty category before 2014, according to Randi Bergman, one of the online editors tasked with curating the new shopping site. Bergman said e-commerce is a natural next step for Fashion.
“We’re shopping-obsessed here at FashionMagazine.com, so it feels natural to close the gap between what our readers lust over on our site and how they eventually purchase those items.”
Fashion is one of many print brands trying to diversify its offering and find new sources of revenue as subscriptions and newsstand sales for print editions decline. In April, Wired Magazine began a partnership with Target that saw kiosks of “Wired Approved” products selected by its editorial team available for purchase in more than 1,000 stores across the U.S. Another Conde Naste print brand, Lucky Magazine, has also diversified its offering by launching an e-commerce portal, MyLucky.
In Canada, Fashion competitor LouLou (which, like Marketing, is owned by Rogers Media) has its own portal called LouLou Shopping and an e-commerce-connected iPad edition that allows readers to click through and purchase roughly 600 of the items featured in each issue.
