Edito-retail: more stores turn publisher to boost sales

News reaches us today that landmark London department store Liberty is the latest retailer to launch a customer magazine to complement its retail and etail sales channels. They follow in the footsteps of a number of retailers and etailers to turn to good old print to engage customers.

We'll have to wait until September to see what the glossy 72pp At Liberty tome looks like but we're sure contract publisher River will deliver a publication in keeping with Liberty's eclecticly luxurious image. (Incidentally if you want to see behind the scenes of the store, check out BBC2 at 8pm tonight for Britain's Next Big Thing, which documents brands attempts to be stocked by the store - we can claim a hand in the commissioning of the programme having introduced Liberty and its MD Ed Burstell to TV production company Maverick).

This convergence of retail and media isn't new - stores have been producing customer magazines for many years now - but it is fair to say it has gathered pace lately and this can be attributed to the editorialising of retail content on etail websites.

Asos
Ever at the vanguard, etailer Asos launched its customer magazine in 2007 and last we heard was distributing around 500,0000 copies every month, which would place it in the same circulation bracket as high-circulation glossy magazines such as Glamour and Cosmopolitan.

This move made perfect sense for Asos and somewhat closed a loop for it, since its proposition had centred on customers seeing items in the media and coming to the site to buy them there and then. Why not, then, have them read about it in your own magazine and direct them to your site when the editorial stories are followed through? Makes for a much more compelling experience and gave the etailer a new revenue stream, advertising.

Net-a-Porter
Luxury etailer Net-a-Porter was too at the forefront of presenting retail content in an editorial context so it's perhaps surprising that it took the etailer until this year to launch a magazine. But, as with all things Net does, they did it well.

Its first bi-annual magazine launched this spring with Alexa Chung on the cover and an editorial proposition and design that puts many a more established high-end fashion magazine into the shade. It too carries advertising and, interestingly, that advertising comes not just from brands stocked on the site but from other luxury brands such as Tiffany and Van Cleef & Arpels, suggesting this publishing exercise is destined to do more than just pay for itself.

My-wardrobe.com
Perhaps one of the most integrated print and online offers comes from etailer My-wardrobe.com, which underwent a revamp this year to celebrate its 5th birthday. The site, which pitches itself as Everyday Luxury, sits in between Asos and Netaporter in terms of market positioning and has been forging very close links with editors and magazines in recent months.

It's not unusual to see high profile editors from Grazia gracing its site offering style advice and not surprising either since Grazia's founding editor Fiona McIntosh is creative director of the site. Its Spring/Summer style guide is a permanent fixture on its site's home page and the site constantly makes reference to the guide.

Furthermore the guide itself works in tandem with My-wardrobe's App which enables readers to input a code and be taken directly to the item in question on the site. It's clever stuff and again the production values outdo those of some of the most established traditional publishers.

John Lewis
But it isn't just the new online movers and shakers who are getting into the publishing act. One of our most established and best loved retailers John Lewis has recently revamped its magazine, Edition, which is published for the retailer by John Brown.

The monthly publication, free in store, features some of the best writers from the glossies and broadsheets including The Guardian's Jess Cartner-Morley, columnist India Knight and profiler Toby Young. It's a compelling read presented in a beautiful design on high-quality paper, whioh translates into a rather compelling shopping tool too.

Independent retailers need not feel this channel isn't for them. Luxury independent Matches publishes a highly successful seasonal magazine, which it sends to its top clients and which reaps particular benefits for its website.

One of the biggest frustrations for indies is getting sufficient traffic to their etail sites; a little magazine telling them what they might find there if they made the effort could just do the trick.

D&G diffusion causes confusion

Interesting story on WGSN yesterday about rumours that Italian house Dolce & Gabbana may be considering ditching its diffusion line, D&G, and folding it into its main line.

According to those in the know the secondary line, given its similar name, is often confused with the main collection and the positioning of the two is not distinct enough. See our two pictures from the recent Milan A/W 11/12 shows (D&G is at the top) - the playfulness of the D&G handwriting is certainly present in both, but the Dolce & Gabbana line always remained slightly more sophisticated and tailored. (I recall visiting the D&G London showroom some years ago now to have someone explain to me that you could tell a D&G dress from a Dolce & Gabbana one because the house animal print for D&G was ocelot and not leopard, which seemed a rather subtle difference that could be lost on the customer, particularly as price points at the top end of D&G edge into Dolce & Gabbana territory.)

To compensate for the removal of the D&G line, the plan is apparently to introduce more lower-priced lines to the main line, which they would certainly have to do since D&G (which makes up 45% of sales for the group) is the main wholesale brand and those boutiques that are perfectly positioned to sell the younger line may not be quite so well suited to selling the main line. And, more to the point, would those stores (typically stellar department stores such as Harvey Nichols and Harrods - D&G fell out with Selfridges last year over floor space and is no longer sold there - and premium indies such as Matches) that sell the main line be happy to see all the wholesale accounts pick it up? Given the competition for brands, I'm guessing they may not.

One of the joys of having a second line (or even third like fellow Italian house Moschino) is that you can please a wider wholesale base without having them tread on each other's turf. So doing that juggling with just one will be a challenge.

Significant wholesale accounts for D&G in the UK include independent etailer My-Wardrobe.com and York super-indie Sarah Coggles along with Bernard of Esher in Surrey. Net-a-porter too stocks a wide range but that's one place the main line would certainly look and feel at home.

Despite the issues around positioning, I'll feel quite sad to see D&G go, if that does prove to be its fate. Its menswear show this season was brilliant and its footwear is always strong and accessible from a price perspective. Let's hope for the customers and the retailers that any merging of brands or repositioning works in their favour.