Sportsgirl reaches for girl brand power with apps and digital

By Rosie Baker | 9 October 2013
 
Mobile and social key for Sportsgirl customers.

Sportsgirl is ramping up its digital marketing activity with new mobile app functions that interact with stores and adopting Pinterest-style social shopping site Wanelo, to build on social interaction.

The fashion retailer is adding an additional function to its mobile app so customers can access content and ‘how to’ videos when scanning products from its beauty range in store. It will be available from November.

The augmented reality app, which launched in September and achieved 5,000 downloads within the first two weeks, currently allows users to access additional content when scanning pages from the brand’s magazine.

As with all retailers' marketing strategy, and just about every other company's, digital is becoming more important for Sportsgirl and its new e-commerce platform should go live at end of this month. The firm wants a consistent customer experience across desktop, mobile and tablets.

Sportsgirl is also adopting Wanelo, the social network which takes its name from a shortened version of ‘Want Need Love’. It has more than 10 million users and although most are in the US, Sportsgirl strategic marketing manager Triona Maddick believes it could be an important part of the brand’s social presence because “hundreds” of girls are already posting images of Sportsgirl products on the site.

Maddick said: “It has 10 million users in the US but no [brands] are doing it here yet, but we think we need to recognise that our customer is willing to go online and broadcast what she wants.”

Wanelo users can follow retailers they like, post products, save products into a wish list and follow other users with similar tastes, search trends to find products to buy and repost the content posted by brands.

All items posted on the site list the price and link back to the original retailer so users can click through to buy.

The California-based network launched in 2010 and has grown from 1 million users in 2012 and claims users spend an average of 50 minutes a day browsing the site. It says its purpose is “reorganising shopping around people”.

Products from more than 200,000 stores, including global retailers to independent stores, are listed on the site.

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