The site, which sells high-end clothing, shoes, handbags, jewelry and watches, will become a part of Amazon.com/Fashion, according to a statement that appeared on the front page of the site.

Reuters, which first reported the news, said Amazon launched Endless.com in 2007, and that the closure is part of a big push by Amazon to expand further into fashion and apparel this year.

In an recent interview with AllThingsD, Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos said he is spending a lot of time thinking about the apparel, and that its clothing business was getting “very exciting.”

“I think there’s a tremendous amount of invention going on there, especially in the Web presentation of apparel,” he said.

A spokesperson confirmed that the transition was taking place and said that other non-Amazon branded fashion properties, such as Zappos or Shopbop, would not be affected.

“Between Amazon, Shopbop and Zappos, our customers have easy access to an assortment of quality brands and a variety of shopping experiences for any fashion need, so we are shifting our Endless business to Amazon in order to focus on the Amazon Fashion experience,” the spokesperson said.

Amazon also operates MyHabit.com, a fashion site that sells items at a discount.

Apparel is one of the fastest growing categories online, according to eMarketer, which is predicting that the category will grow by 20 percent to $40.9 billion this year, up from $34.2 billion in 2011.

On the Web site, Amazon billed the changes as “exciting news.”

Never mind that there’s a subscription service for nearly everything now, like artisan food, pet treats and makeup.

The El Segundo, Calif.-based company was able to secure $76 million to help establish itself as the leader in subscriptions for women’s apparel. Rho Ventures led the round, with Matrix Partners, Technology Crossover Ventures and JustFab parent company, Intelligent Beauty, also participating.

JustFab sells purses, shoes and other accessories to members for a $39.95 a month membership. Most items are manufactured in China or Vietnam, and are created by the company’s stylist panel, including Kimora Lee Simmons.

Simmons, who is known for her girls’ clothing line Baby Phat (and for her marriage to Russell Simmons), also invested in the company’s first round. To date, the company has raised $139 million, putting it well ahead of its next closest competitor.

ShoeDazzle, which also runs a monthly subscription women’s apparel service for $39.95 a month, has raised $60 million as of last year from Andreessen Horowitz and others.

In a recent guest post on AllThingsD, Brian O’Malley, a general partner with Battery Ventures who leads its e-commerce practice, wrote that subscription models are totally overblown. “Investors love the concept of repeatable revenue,” O’Malley wrote, but he cautioned that “with high churn rates and the ability in several models to skip deliveries, retention may be only a function of how hard sites make it to cancel.”

JustFab received its first investment from Intelligent Beauty, an incubator in Los Angeles that was started by JustFab founders Adam Goldenberg (pictured right) and Don Ressler. The incubator also produced two very successful companies, including DermStore, a health and beauty e-commerce destination, and Sensa, the well-known weight-loss program.

As part of this round, all of the cash will go back to the business, and not to line the pockets of the founders.

“We live, breathe and sleep this business,” Goldenberg said. “We put our money where our mouth is. Don and I own a large amount of Intelligent Beauty, so instead of distributing out its profits, we reinvested it back into the business.”

The mega round will go toward the company’s international growth plans. It has already launched in Canada and Germany, and has plans to launch in the U.K. in September, and in several other European markets by early next year. It is also interested in making acquisitions.

JustFab is on track to hit $100 million in revenue this year, up from $25 million in 2010, and aims to reach $500 million in sales by 2015.

Goldenberg said JustFab’s ability to raise this big of a round is a testament to the subscription model. “No doubt about it, there’s a little bit of hype, and anyone is willing to throw a subscription model onto anything. But you have to deliver value in exchange for having the subscription commitment,” he said.

The value that JustFab is offering consumers is that for $40, they are getting a pair of shoes that would normally cost $70 to $100 in a department store. JustFab can do this by cutting out several middlemen by creating its own brand, going direct to manufacturers in Asia and selling direct to consumers.

JustFab will take a massive amount of execution, including managing the design process, manufacturing process and delivery, which includes building and maintaining its own warehouses, and looking over its 320 employees.

“We are operational and executional type of guys,” Goldenberg said. “We are working with a phenomonal management teams, who is committed to working around the clock and are passionate about the business. We also have fun because we are building a unique market.”

Here’s the full release:

JustFab Secures $76 Million in Funding as it Leads Personalized Fast Fashion Category

Funds to Fuel International Expansion and Accelerate Development of Lifestyle Fashion Brand

July 26, 2012 —El Segundo, CA — JustFab, the innovative fashion styling service and contemporary fashion brand, today announced that it has secured $76 million in funding. Rho Ventures led the round with participation from Matrix Partners, Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) and JustFab parent company, Intelligent Beauty. The primary capital will be used to further JustFab’s aggressive international expansion, move into additional fashion categories, and provide cash flow for future acquisitions. Mark Leschly, Managing Partner at Rho Ventures, will join the board.

“At a time when others are retreating from the subscriptions and international markets, we see massive growth and opportunity,” said JustFab co-CEO Adam Goldenberg. “Our rapidly growing, extremely loyal membership base is a resounding endorsement of JustFab’s merchandising and sales model.”

JustFab is the leader in the fashion subscription space, with more than 6 million members. The company combines fast fashion with the industry’s highest level of personalization through its unique community, impressive style panel and high quality, affordable products. Members gain access to discounted pricing, exclusive promotions, and fashion consultants 24/7 in addition to receiving a host of other benefits. Casual shoppers make use of JustFab’s pay-as-you-go pricing, giving consumers the option to try the service before they commit to a monthly subscription.

Company Continues Aggressive International Expansion
JustFab continues to change the way women shop for fashion both in the US and abroad, with more unique visitors than anyone in the industry. It is also rapidly acquiring users in Germany and Canada. Based on its current international success, the company plans to launch in the United Kingdom in September 2012, with several other major European markets added by the end of Q1, 2013.

In addition to furthering its global reach, JustFab plans to use its latest round of funding to expand into new fashion categories requested by its members. JustFab currently offers shoes, handbags, jewelry, denim and other accessories.

“Finding the right partner to grow with us is key at this stage in our business,” says Don Ressler, Co-CEO of JustFab, “Rho’s commitment to building sustainable brands while maintaining the entrepreneurial spirit makes them an ideal partner as we continue our upward trajectory.”

“Adam and Don have aggressively grown JustFab’s membership base, both in the U.S. and abroad,” said Mark Leschly from Rho Ventures, “With impressive revenue every quarter, we are excited to be a part of its continued expansion. This team has a big vision with an established track record of success. We look forward to helping them redefine fashion e-commerce.”

“JustFab has flawlessly executed its plans, proving that there is a right way to do subscriptions,” added Josh Hannah, general partner at Matrix Partners and JustFab board member. “When you combine great value, selection, quality, and personalization with a fun, social shopping experience, you attract and retain members. JustFab has masterfully done what no one else has been able to do, and the team has accomplished it in record time.”

“With its innovative and interactive approach to online fashion sales, JustFab has created a powerful formula for tapping the tremendous growth potential in the global Internet retail market,” says John Drew, TCV general partner and a director on the JustFab board.

To learn more about all that JustFab offers members and new shoppers, please visit www.justfab.com.

In the past seven months, Fab has grown rapidly, registering 1.65 million users, who have purchased 750,000 products.

It now plans to grow even faster, with the help of this acquisition.

Both companies have a similar mission: To bring independent artists and craftsmen, who make aesthetically appealing and sometimes out-of-the ordinary items, to a large marketplace.

Fab.com does this mostly for home decor, and New York-based FashionStake does it mostly for fashion and apparel. The sites have the flavor of a Gilt Groupe, which sells high-end fashion at a discount, except they offer more undiscovered brands, at more reasonable prices.

In a blog post, Fab CEO Jason Goldberg said FashionStake co-founders Vivian Weng and Daniel Gulati will join the Fab company.

Goldberg did not disclose terms of the deal, but it’s possible that he tapped into a large cash reserve, which includes a $40 million round of capital raised last month from Andreessen Horowitz and others.

FashionStake, which launched in September 2010, has received investments from a number of players, including Battery Ventures, Forerunner Ventures and Gilt Groupe co-founder Alexis Maybank.

Last year, FashionStake acquired Moxsie, another retailer of independent fashion.

In October, the online fashion magazine attracted 4.3 million visitors, generating 40 million page views; it has 600,000 subscribers signed up for local editions in five cities nationwide.

To date, though, it has mostly monetized the company through advertising.

Co-founder Philippe von Borries said that 80 percent of the revenue this year will come from ads, and 20 percent from commerce. Next year, he hopes the ratio is closer to 40 percent from commerce.

“Content drives incredible engagement, and now that we have built such a sizable audience of women who tune in every day through email, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram — we are building exciting new opportunities to shop our content,” he said.

Today, the company is relaunching its e-commerce component, called Reserve. The site, which is separate from the editorial, will offer only a few items a day, and could be connected to the content that appears in the magazine; it is currently offering a selection of boots and handbags.

To support the launch, the company raised $4.5 million in funding this summer in a first round from Floodgate and First Round Capital.

Von Borries said the New York-based company is hiring aggressively to add to its current 49 employees, and that its revenues are on an annual run rate of $15 million. Last year, its revenues totaled $2 million.

On the site, shoppers add — or “follow” — celebrities and experts who share similar interests, to receive recommendations on the latest food, fashion, design and style.

In that way, OpenSky pushes product ideas to shoppers, somewhat in the way Twitter lets people discover information versus having to search for an answer on Google.

Caplan told me OpenSky has raised $30 million in fresh capital to continue building out the business.

The New York-based company, with offices in Los Angeles and Nashville, is only six months old and previously raised $19 million in two prior rounds.

New investor Providence Equity Partners led the financing. Existing investors Highland Capital Partners, Canaan Partners and the Raine Group also participated.

Some of the company’s talent includes celebrity chefs such as Bobby Flay and Italian food expert Lidia Bastianich, and pop culture figures like actress and reality TV star Kristin Cavallari, who will advise customers on the latest fashions.

In a recent offering, Flay, who has 164,626 followers, advised shoppers to purchase a spice bundle for $23. Fitness guru and motivation speaker Gabrielle Bernstein recommended a collapsible Hula-Hoop that’s easy to travel with.

Caplan said it’s an approach that’s really resonating with shoppers, particularly women in their 30s.

He said the company will break $1 million in sales this month and is on track for a $10 million run rate. Both order volume and revenues are growing 50 percent month over month.

The company already has 600,000 members signed up; they are now connecting to millions of shopping “experts.” It took the first 14 weeks for OpenSky to hit one million connections, 10 weeks to get its second million and three weeks to reach its third million. Customers are spending $50 on the average transaction, which is more than double Amazon’s average order of $22, Caplan said.

“This feels like such a modern way to shop, compared to the search box,” Caplan said. “There’s not a lot of soul in online shopping. We are putting the soul back into shopping.”

He added that walking into actual stores is engaging and entertaining. “I think Amazon is a fantastic company, and they have a lot of things they do really brilliantly, but I don’t think it’s the best way to shop.”

Many companies right now are challenging the original e-commerce model, and for good reason. Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker noted in a report last week that e-commerce makes up 8 percent of overall commerce in the U.S. today, and continues to climb.

Caplan said the capital will be used to add more shopping verticals and experts to the site. Today, it has 75, with hundreds more coming.

As the former president of About.com, which relied on a distributed workforce to contribute answers to the site, Caplan believes he knows exactly how to get the business to click.

To make money, OpenSky is splitting the gross profit from the items sold with the experts on the site. It’s free to join as a member, and there’s a 90-day money-back guarantee. So far, it has experienced a 1 percent return rate.

“I personally love businesses where you partner with talent and create talent,” he said.

Think of it as the Netflix for fashion.

The 18-month-old company lets you rent high-end dresses and accessories for special occasions. It even gives you the prepaid envelope to send it all back when you are done–no dry cleaning necessary.

If you didn’t know better, you would have thought Rent the Runway starred in the hit movie “Bridesmaids.” That’s because there are dresses for most occasions, even a wedding that you aren’t willing to break the bank over.

Rent the Runway was founded by two Harvard Business grads, Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Fleiss, and is announcing today that it has raised $15 million in venture capital from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The funding follows a first round by Bain Capital Ventures and Highland Capital totaling $16 million. Aileen Lee, a partner at Kleiner Perkins, will join Runway’s board.

On the site, women browse from 25,000 dresses from 95 designers, such as Dolce and Gabbana and Vera Wang. Next, they enter a date for the event and their dress size. After that, you make a reservation, and can even get a back-up size free, so you don’t have to worry about it fitting on the big night.

Rental prices vary depending on the price of the dress. For example, a knee-length dress from Sachin + Babi rents for $125 and retails for $660. But a $2,250 peach-colored dress from Nina Ricci rents more than twice that at $300. In general, the colors and styles seem endless.

The investment will allow Rent the Runway to offer a wider selection of brands and price points. It also will go toward some of the less glamorous work, such as beefing up its back-end systems to handle future growth and pay for new warehouses outside of New York City (coming in January 2012).

If the model doesn’t already sound like the mail-order DVD rental business, the company is willing to draw the comparison itself. In a release, it said it will also be personalizing the shopping experience “using proprietary algorithms rivaling that of Netflix.”

So far, the company claims to already have more than one million members.

Part of its business proposition is also exposing women to new brands.

In that way, Fleiss, the company’s president, says the company can be used as a marketing and customer acquisition channel for its partnering brands. In a release, she said, “Ninety-eight percent of our customers are trying brands they’ve never before worn. We are introducing experiential brand marketing into the fashion industry–not just a onetime transaction–which is the power behind Rent the Runway.”

AOL will begin rolling out its plans to overhaul its panoply of content sites as early as today, a key part of its integration with the Huffington Post, sources familiar with the situation said.

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong will be sending out an internal memo on the topic soon, said sources with knowledge of the moves.

He will outline how the New York-based Internet portal, which paid $315 million to acquire the high-profile news and opinion site, will essentially close down dozens of its dedicated content sites–some being shuttered completely and others integrated with existing Huffington Post sites.

One example of the first is Politics Daily, as has been previously reported; it will no longer exist as a brand. Its staff is being integrated into the Huffington Post’s more robust political offerings.

It goes both ways, though–the Huffington Post’s travel site will be closed in favor of AOL’s stronger offering in that arena.

And still other well-known AOL brands, such as its PopEater celebrity site and its StyleList fashion and beauty site, will keep their names but no longer exist as separate destination sites. PopEater will be integrated into HuffPo’s entertainment and StyleList to its similar site.

[UPDATE: StyleList's status was shifted just this morning--it will remain a standalone brand and AOL's Shelterpop will become StyleList at Home, integrating into StyleList. Plus it will all now be called Stylist--losing the "e" and capped "L."]

The changes are causing some tension within AOL, given it is a drastic shift from relatively recent efforts to expand its portfolio of editorial sites.

In fact, some insiders are calling the recent vetting of which content sites to close and which to keep as “death panels,” a somewhat dicey reference to controversies over the Obama administration’s healthcare plan.

Also on deck for tomorrow will be letters sent out to freelancers about new plans to hire some–though not all–of them. According to several sources, AOL content head Arianna Huffington outlined the plan to editors recently, stressing the need to focus on staff-generated and more journalistically focused content.

One thing that is not happening is the appointment of a new editor-in-chief for AOL’s flagship tech news site, Engadget.

BoomTown reported on the recent departure of Engadget’s top two editors, Editor-in-Chief Josh Topolsky and Managing Editor Nilay Patel.

The news rocketed around the small echo chamber that is the tech blogosphere, which is no surprise since Engadget is one of the largest sites on the Web covering the tech sector.

In the interim, staffer Darren Murph has been appointed managing editor of Engadget. He reports to Joshua Fruhlinger, editorial director for Engadget, Switched and AOL Tech. Brad Hill is the business director for the properties.

Engadget is one of the largest in tech, with 14 million unique visitors a month. Its main competitor is Gawker’s Gizmodo. AOL also owns TechCrunch, another tech news site.

An email to AOL for comment has not yet been returned.

For Fashion Week, which kicks off Thursday at Lincoln Center, Tumblr is bringing in two dozen of the top fashion bloggers who use its site, putting them up in a hotel and sending them to myriad events, including backstage tours and a rooftop party. The plan is part of a push to raise its own profile and the profiles of its bloggers.

It’s also evidence of its sway. Tumblr’s acceptance by big-name designers is the latest sign of an increasingly cozy relationship between two strange bedfellows: the fashion and technology communities.
Luxury labels, which once shied away from e-commerce for fear of muddying their brands, are now embracing blogging and social-media tools such as Tumblr and Twitter because they provide a direct way to reach fashion-conscious consumers. The invited “Tumblrs,” as the bloggers are called, all have thousands of followers.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

The New York-based Internet company said it would “co-develop and co-produce new Web programming initially aimed at AOL’s growing women’s audience” with Endemol.

Endemol makes television shows, such as “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” “Big Brother,” “Wipeout” and “Jerseylicious,” as well as Web series “Married On My Space 1 & 2″ and “Coupon Mom.”

AOL is working on several other content partnerships, said sources, to add to its previous ones.

AOL said the first two “built-if-sold”–meaning some big advertiser has to pony up–will be:

“Re-Dressed by America”: An interactive Web series where online users make over subjects facing a life-changing event (high school reunions, first dates, etc.) by voting on their hairstyles, fashion, accessories and more. The series will be featured on Stylelist.com and MyDaily.com.

“Mamá’s Recipe”: U.S. families compete for the best family recipes and share their secrets with the AOL audience. The series will be featured on KitchenDaily and AOL Latino.

Not exactly “The Sopranos,” but there you have it.

Here’s the full press release from AOL:

AOL INC. AND ENDEMOL USA ANNOUNCE WEB PROGRAMMING PRODUCTION PARTNERSHIP

Agreement Further Expands AOL’s Original Video Offerings

New York, NY–January 12. 2011– AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) and Endemol USA today announced a production agreement to co-develop and co-produce new Web programming initially aimed at AOL’s growing women’s audience, as well as at the broader AOL audience. The partnership will focus on creating premium, unscripted digital video content that will enhance the user experience by taking advantage of the real time, interactive and community nature of the Web.

“Endemol is a premiere producer of unscripted programming and their expertise in creating unique, interactive, popular shows, combined with AOL’s growing video audience will take digital production to the next level,” said David Eun, President of AOL Media & Studios. “Endemol is the latest in a string of partnerships that serve both the AOL consumers and our advertising partners.”

“We are thrilled to partner with such a successful and global leading company like AOL,” said David Goldberg, Chairman of Endemol North America. “This deal continues our growth as a leader in interactive digital entertainment, and we look forward to creating many genre-defining series with AOL.”

The first two built-if-sold series to be produced under the new agreement are:

“Re-Dressed By America”: An interactive web series where online users make over subjects facing a life-changing event (high school reunions, first dates, etc.) by voting on their hairstyles, fashion, accessories and more. The series will be featured on Stylelist.com and MyDaily.com.

“Mamá’s Recipe”: US families compete for the best family recipes and share their secrets with the AOL audience. The series will be featured on KitchenDaily (http://www.kitchendaily.com) and AOL Latino (http://latino.aol.com/).

AOL will promote each Web series throughout the AOL Network focusing on the sites and destinations relevant for each series’ demographic. Every series produced through this partnership will feature enhanced online programming, such as user voting, supplemental video clips and supporting blog content to create deeper user experiences, and opportunities for sponsors to integrate their messaging in creative and highly-engaging ways.

Endemol USA, one of the world’s leading producers of entertainment programming, will leverage its experience producing hit shows such as Emmy-award winning “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” “Big Brother,” “Wipeout” and “Jerseylicious,” as well as the hit Web series “Married On My Space 1 & 2″ and “Coupon Mom” to create captivating Web series with AOL.

“You’ve Got…” the video series that debuted with the new AOL.com launch, generated nearly 8 million views in its first month, and featured a diverse guest list including Kelly Ripa, Barack Obama, Matt Damon and the Marines in Afghanistan. For comparison, that puts “You’ve Got…” on-pace with a top 10 Web series. Overall, video views on the new AOL.com rose more than 3X in its first month.

Yes, like a digital Heidi Klum, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo did declare that BoomTown’s outfit was “matador casual” at the start of an interview I did with him at D@CES last Friday.

The event, which we did in cooperation with the Consumer Electronics Show, was only three sessions in one afternoon. It was followed by a lovely party, all at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.

Here’s a longish highlights video of my interview with Costolo, during which we talked about a wide range of issues facing the San Francisco microblogging service, as well as his take on my fashion choice.

But let it be said, while I did not comment on his sartorial selection at the time, as you will see below, Costolo really did pull off a very smart approximation of an Ellen DeGeneres look himself.

Here’s the highlights video of Costolo–the full video will be up in a week.

The other highlights videos at D@CES will also be posted this week, with the full videos next week: Microsoft Internet Explorer head Dean Hachamovitch on Wednesday, and Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang on Friday.

Enjoy:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110110/dces-highlights-video-twitter-ceo-dick-costolo-%c2%a1ole/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110107/ebay-augmented-reality-app-lets-you-try-it-on-before-you-buy/ http://allthingsd.com/20110107/ebay-augmented-reality-app-lets-you-try-it-on-before-you-buy/#comments Sat, 08 Jan 2011 00:46:52 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://emoney.allthingsd.com/?p=1413 One of the problems with ordering clothing online is not knowing whether it will fit or look good.

EBay has a technology fix for that using augmented reality on the mobile phone. Now you will never have to go to the mall!

The feature launched in Apple’s App Store yesterday as part of an update to eBay’s mobile app that launched five months ago.

There are two options: Try on sunglasses with “See It On” or build an outfit with “Outfit Builder.”

Here’s how it works:

With “See It On,” iPhone 4 owners can take a picture of themselves using a forward-facing camera and then pinch and zoom to fit the glasses to their face. Users can choose from a small section, including Aviator, Wayfarer or Rimless, in various colors. From there, they can search for matching listings on eBay.

For clothing, the augmented reality feature is called “Outfit Builder.” Users can designate favorite pieces of clothing with the eBay app and store them in their “Personalized Closet.” Then, they use “Outfit Builder” to mix and match items in the closet. To try the items on, the user can similarly overlay the clothes on a white canvas or a saved photo or live image (by pointing the camera toward a friend or a mirror).

Once an outfit is created, it can be saved for future reference or shared via email.

This is the first time eBay has tried using augmented reality in its apps, so it’s questionable how easy it will be to use, or how useful. It could be a fun novelty factor, which is working for other companies, like Polyvore, a start-up that allows people to create outfits online by mixing and matching fashions from all over the Web.

EBay’s mobile apps generated $2 billion in sales last year, which breaks down to 13 pieces of clothing, pairs of shoes or accessories every minute.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110107/ebay-augmented-reality-app-lets-you-try-it-on-before-you-buy/feed/ 3 http://allthingsd.com/20110106/lady-gaga126000-pasty-geeks-in-vegasboomtown-nirvana/ http://allthingsd.com/20110106/lady-gaga126000-pasty-geeks-in-vegasboomtown-nirvana/#comments Thu, 06 Jan 2011 14:24:35 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=39227

This is going to be good.

The iconic singer and performance artist Lady Gaga will be appearing at the Consumer Electronics Show later today to unveil “creations” she came up with for Polaroid.

Gaga announced last year here that she had been named the creative director of Polaroid.

As part of the collaboration that will debut her Polaroid “Grey Label” project, Gaga said a year ago that she would be coming up with “prototypes in marrying the fields of fashion/technology/photography innovation.”

Oh, goody. Fishnet stockings that can post pictures to Instagram!

I am considering going to the event–as ordered to by the shy and retiring Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel.

But it will likely be a mosh pit of nerdy dudes, so I’ll need to frontload starting at 10 am.

And you can watch it on Polaroid.com at 3:30 pm PT.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110106/lady-gaga126000-pasty-geeks-in-vegasboomtown-nirvana/feed/ 3 http://allthingsd.com/20101229/web-commerce-isnt-really-social-yet/ http://allthingsd.com/20101229/web-commerce-isnt-really-social-yet/#comments Thu, 30 Dec 2010 05:24:20 +0000 Liz Gannes http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com/?p=1731 My colleague Tricia Duryee has an excellent post up on eMoney about the big trends in e-commerce: Mobile, local and social. But when you think about massive new Web commerce businesses like Groupon and Gilt Groupe, they’re barely social at all.

Sites like Gilt are supposedly exclusive discount fashion communities, but the reality is they will take anyone who will pay. Groupon, which just got Google to say it was worth as much as $6 billion and is on the verge of an investor valuation of $4.75 billion, is a glorified email list. Sure, users must swarm a deal to activate it, but that always happens. And users can share deals with their friends on Facebook and Twitter, earning referral rewards if they buy a deal.

Hitwise researcher Bill Tancer told me via email that only 8.3 percent of Groupon traffic comes from social media referrals. That’s compared to 24 percent of Groupon traffic coming from shopping and classifieds Web pages (as in, ads) and 13 percent from email sites.

Upstream traffic from social networks as a portion of total Groupon traffic declined 83 percent from Nov. 9 to Nov. 10. Tancer said the move from social networks to email reflects the shift of Groupon visitors from early adopters to mainstream users.

The thing is, as seen particularly in the gaming business, social may have the capacity to be an incredible multiplier for any industry. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said more than once that he thinks e-commerce will be one of the next big sectors to be disrupted by companies that are built to be social from the ground up.

Linking social with commerce is tricky. Besides user reviews and accounts, which have been around forever, much of social commerce is very basic.

For example, Amazon recently launched the most minimal of minimal Facebook integrations, recommending products based on opted-in users’ public “Likes” and giving gift suggestions for friends with upcoming birthdays. The Web retailer could have gone much deeper, by, for instance, automatically connecting Amazon users to their Facebook accounts or helping users tell friends about new items they have bought.

But that would have raised privacy hackles, as with previous Facebook initiatives, such as the discontinued Facebook Beacon effort or the current Instant Personalization program.

Some retailers are trying to sell things directly on Facebook, such as Delta Air Lines tickets and JCPenney apparel. I see the point of trying to capture users on the sites where they spend all their time, but it seems a little awkward.

Not to say Facebook isn’t already developing a burgeoning business in virtual e-commerce through its gaming partners that could eventually extend to real-world goods (although the margins would be much worse).

And, yes, there are all sorts of real-world deals you can access by playing the “mayor game” on a local social service like Foursquare.

Also on the start-up front, the collage community Polyvore arranges deals and creates tools to help its two million users influence fashion designers, and indie retailer Moxsie asks its Twitter followers to help it choose what items to sell.

There are also start-ups, like Payvment and Milyoni, that provide tools for Facebook storefronts. And the purchase-sharing platforms Blippy and Swipely are social commerce taken to the extreme.

While none of those are Groupon-scale businesses, there are many playing around with the potentially explosive combination of social and commerce.

One cool example of social commerce I just saw today was in a post by E.B. Boyd at Fast Company.

Tea Collection, a boutique children’s clothing maker, used the Facebook Like button to decide which of its selection of discontinued girls’ dresses to deeply discount. When a $59 dress was chosen by user Likes, it was discounted to $10. It quickly sold out at a loss, but additional purchases by customers brought in by the sale gave the company one of its biggest overall sales days ever.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101229/web-commerce-isnt-really-social-yet/feed/ 9 http://allthingsd.com/20101221/fashion-community-strutting-user-generated-trends-down-the-cat-walk/ http://allthingsd.com/20101221/fashion-community-strutting-user-generated-trends-down-the-cat-walk/#comments Wed, 22 Dec 2010 02:58:14 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://emoney.allthingsd.com/?p=919 Fashionistas may roll their eyes at the effort, but Polyvore is trying to make designing and merchandising apparel more data driven–and presumably less arbitrary.

To do so, the online fashion community will be crunching user-generated data to roll out analytical tools for designers and retailers. Think Quantcast or Compete, but for the fashion industry.

The beta tool, called Style Analytics, will be free and openly available to anyone on Polyvore’s Web site. It’s expected to launch officially tomorrow afternoon.

The data points are coming from its community of users, who create virtual outfits–or what they call “collages” of clothing–by mixing and matching shirts, pants, dresses, shoes, skirts and accessories from around the Web.

Jess Lee, Polyvore’s co-founder and head of product management, said it will show what’s trending, so brands can make better decisions. Specifically, it shows how consumers associate your brand, for instance, with Abercrombie & Fitch or Juicy Couture.

“The fashion industry, from designing to merchandising and marketing is inefficient and not data driven,” she said. “Our goal is to open it up and make it more democratic and more data driven.”

The Mountain View, Calif.-based company has raised about $8.7 million in venture capital since 2007. Each month, its two million registered users create one million collages that generate 140 million page views.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101221/fashion-community-strutting-user-generated-trends-down-the-cat-walk/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20101220/ebay-acquires-berlin-based-brands4friends-for-200-million/ http://allthingsd.com/20101220/ebay-acquires-berlin-based-brands4friends-for-200-million/#comments Mon, 20 Dec 2010 17:05:09 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://emoney.allthingsd.com/?p=856 It’s been a busy shopping season for eBay, which has made its third acquisition in as many weeks.

Today, eBay said it has acquired brands4friends, a German online retailer for $200 million in cash. Earlier this month, eBay announced the acquisitions of Milo, which keeps a database of local retailers’ inventory, and Critical Path, a mobile application development shop.

EBay expects brands4friends to strengthen its position as a leading online fashion destination in Europe. Brands4friends claims to be “Germany’s largest online shopping club,” which offers top brands at reduced prices to members through limited daily offers.

Online shopping clubs account for 20 percent of online fashion sales in Europe, according to eBay’s own research.

The 3-year-old company has about 3.5 million members and 200 employees.

As part of the deal, eBay will also assume brands4friends’ equity interests in U.K. shopping club secretsales.com and in Japan’s brands4friends.jp. The acqusition is expected to close in the first quarter, pending regulatory approval.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101220/ebay-acquires-berlin-based-brands4friends-for-200-million/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20101117/a-fashion-shopping-site-google-style/ http://allthingsd.com/20101117/a-fashion-shopping-site-google-style/#comments Wed, 17 Nov 2010 18:46:08 +0000 Voices http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=32715 Judging by its new entry in the women’s fashion department, Boutiques.com, Google’s personal style is Mix ‘N’ Match Eclectic. The site blends computer geekery (visual search and algorithmic recommendations) with fashion geekery (collections curated by taste-makers) and accessorizes the outfit with social features (create your own boutique and follow others).

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101117/a-fashion-shopping-site-google-style/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20101014/sugar-inc-goes-shopping-buys-myperfectsale/ http://allthingsd.com/20101014/sugar-inc-goes-shopping-buys-myperfectsale/#comments Thu, 14 Oct 2010 19:47:17 +0000 Beth Callaghan http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=31099 Sugar Inc., the San Francisco-based, women-focused network of content sites, just keeps stretching its legs. The company announced today that it has acquired MyPerfectSale, an online shopping service for high-end fashion, which will join its ShopStyle network of shopping sites. Last month, CEO Brian Sugar spoke with Kara Swisher about a couple of other recent expansion moves–its first foray into local in June and its first foray into Facebook in July, with the launch of a shopping game called Retail Therapy.

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