These days, it’s sink or swim in the publishing industry. As advertisers pull out dollars, magazines are forced to think of ways to pull in additional revenue and one way to do this is to*
sell, sell, sell. But we’re not talking about selling magazine subscriptions. We’re talking about selling product.
Ladies and gentlemen, our example of the day is
Time Inc.*(the big guys who publish InStyle, People, and other glossies). The magazine group has boldly tapped into the land of e-commerce by acquiring
StyleFeeder, a personal shopping engine.
The move comes after Time Inc.’s ad dollars dipped down 25 percent in the first nine months of 2009. Time Warner Chief Executive
Ann Moore explains.
The strategy is: Invest in the biggest brands, double down on the digital, and get into third revenue streams. This [StyleFeeder] got a check in all three boxes.
StyleFeeder is simple, user-friendly, and quite genius (if you ask an online shopper like myself). The site prides itself in learning about your tastes and personal style as you shop. For instance, if you type in “black mini skirt”, thousands of skirts will*pop up. But as you “add” the ones you like to your StyleFeed, the site will learn the types of things you like. The more you shop, the more StyleFeeder figures out what to feed you. It basically takes the guesswork out of online shopping. Similar sites that do this are
TheFind.com and
Covet.com.
Expect to see StyleFeeder promos throughout some of the fashion-oriented Time Inc. magazine in the near future, which makes me question what the big brands will think of next. If you haven’t read our post about*
Google venturing into paper products (as in, toilet paper), check it out. And in case you’re wondering, Search Engine Journal has branded company uniforms (as in, sweatsuits) in the works. *
Check out the
SEO Tools guide at
Search Engine Journal.
Time Inc. & StyleFeeder: A Story of Survival, Shopping, & Style 
Time Inc. & StyleFeeder: A Story of Survival, Shopping, &*Style 
