Fashion Sites That Shop for You
Photo courtesy of Jewelmint
Let your Web sites do the shopping: Jewelmint is almost like having a personal stylist.
It’s hard to not be overwhelmed at times with online shopping. Between the plethora of e-commerce sites, shopping aggregators, and eBay, there’s more being offered than ever before—which makes being a discerning shopper ever trickier.
But with Web sites now suggesting music for us (Pandora), friends for us (Facebook), and reading material for us (Amazon), why not let them pick out clothes for us as well?
That question seems to be fueling a new crop of e-retailers like JewelMint, which is fronted by Kate Bosworth; Send the Trend, co-founded by Project Runway alum Christian Siriano; ShoeDazzle, endorsed by Kim Kardashian; and StyleMint, a venture from Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
With most, a monthly fee—for JewelMint, it’s $29.95—gets you access to a site that selects styles corresponding to the member’s personal preferences.
“When you type in anything to search on the Internet, it’s almost terrifying the tidal wave of information you get back,” Bosworth told the New York Times. “The idea of harnessing search for different, sought-after things on the Internet is really the new frontier.”
Most of these sites give users an initial style quiz to determine whether they’re “boho,” “classic,” etc., and computer algorithms sort through the fashionable offerings.
“The first generation of e-commerce was about taking care of your chores—that’s Amazon,” Jeremy Liew, an investor in ShoeDazzle, told the Times. “That’s not what gets people excited in the real world about shopping. This is about making shopping fun again.”
Of course, the celebrity endorsements don’t hurt one bit.
“People look at certain celebrities as style icons,” said Divya Gugnani, co-founder and CEO of Send the Trend. “They trust their ability to say this is hot, this is cool, this is fun.”
In related news, check out the new e-commerce site that lets you shop with friends internationally.
