Macy’s launched a social shopping tool and contest called Fashion Director that allows shoppers to go to Macy’s Web site and create their own outfit based on a scenario of the day. Once they do, they can send it to their friends as well as post to Facebook and Twitter to ask for votes. Further, they can actually purchase the entire outfit, or any of the items they put together, all for a chance to win a $500 gift card to Macy’s.
After you submit your fashion masterpiece to the Web site, anyone can go in and vote for the outfit they like the best. Shoppers can enter daily and at end of the contest period, the entry with the overall most votes wins.
To create your outfit, you drag and drop items into an empty canvas by categories like shirts, bottoms, dresses, jackets, accessories, etc. This seemed like a fun, easy, contest so I entered. I created my outfit and sent it to friends to ask them to vote.
I’m a Macy’s shopper and I’m sold. This is a great interactive way for me to shop and see complete outfits put together without actually going to the store. I plan to enter daily and after the contest is over, I imagine I will have used my Macy’s credit card to purchase something.
This is a perfect example of putting control into the shopper’s hands by focusing on customer-managed relationships (CMR) versus the usual customer relationship management (CRM). It also allows shoppers a moment in their day to do, and be something they usually can’t be, a fashion director. After it’s all said and done, I’m very interested to see how this contest affects their online sales.
Contributed by Jennine Friess
