4 History Long before there was Pinterest, there was Polyvore. Launched in 2007, Polyvore didn’t set out to cater to the fashion-forward. It was originally built as a way to build mood boards for co-founder Pasha Sadri’s home as he was renovating/decorating it. As polyvore evolved, the company’s simple collage tool made it easy for bloggers, tumblr-ers, and various other social media users to make and share outfits and looks with each other in.
Example of Polyvore Set Audience Demographics – Polyvore’s users are actually older than the tween blogger demographic one would assume: 50% of shoppers are over the age of 35 with an average household income of $70,000. 33% of shoppers make over $100,000.
6 Features on the Polyvore homepage – 1.) Members organize products into interactive visual ‘sets’ or slideshow-capable ‘collections’ you can shop from and follow. 2.) Themed ‘sets’ contain a variety of items you hover over for individual product details, and can be clicked on to go to the Polyvore product page. 3.) Member-crafted product ‘collections’ contain themed products and can be liked, viewed as a slideshow, and shared on your blog. 4.) On the product page, price, description, and related items are shown along with a link to buy the product offsite. 5.) When you save a product, you get email alerts when that item goes on sale. 6.) Retail partners can purchase native ad units and sponsored products on the site.
Polyvore’s Community Is An Apparel Company’s Wet Dream. They have money, they’re engaged, AND they’re shopping. Seven of its top 10 retailers are in the luxury space, and it’s most popular with the wealthiest segment of online shoppers who are shopping. A LOT. Polyvore drives a higher average order value than Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter combined. Polyvore has an average order value of $383 compared to Pinterest’s AOV of $200, Facebook’s AOV of $92, and Twitter’s AOV $58.
Social Shopping Site Polyvore.com Drives 20 Percent of Online Retail Sales Possible Reason for Polyvore’s Crazy Conversions: Polyvore fulfills our need to window shop: Facebook is a only deal driven, whereas Polyvore is set up for presenting ensembles, curating the shopping experience and looking at products within a retail context.
Brands Make the Most of Polyvore when using it… – to introduce new products. (All Saints) – to show customers multiple ways to style an item. – to show how your product is part of a larger trend. (fringe trend) – to show how your products can be used or styled on certain holidays and events. – to showcase celebrities using your product or a similar one. (diane kruger look) – to align your products with brands you’d like to be associated with. (‘downtown girl’)
Bottom Line Brands and retailers tend to focus on the big three social networks – Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest but we can’t overlook a site like Polyvore which is driving double the average order value of Facebook. Polyvore is a formidable social commerce channel that continues to grow, and depending on how you look at it, either on pace with the big social players or is head and shoulders above. RichRelevance recently studied the social shopping landscape and found that while Facebook is still the leader in overall retail conversions, Pinterest and Polyvore in particular, are nothing to sneeze at with both sites driving significantly higher average orders to their retail partners.