Fashionistas Showcase and Sell at Social Shopping Site

By Michelle Megna

Independent designers and fashionistas who want to capitalize on social commerce and are looking for an easy way to increase their online sales now have a new option: OURthreads.com. Launched today, the community site lets members buy, sell or trade items from their customized virtual closets.

"There's been big news in the social networking area, we're seeing MySpace and Facebook and other sites attracting a lot of attention, so we decided to create a social networking site for fashion," said co-founder Brian Finn. "We wanted to offer a social networking site for fashion, for people to buy, sell and trade, but also to communicate with each other."

OURthreads allows members to connect to others with similar styles across the fashion spectrum from couture to retro through message boards and by showcasing their virtual closet. When you register with OURthreads you will be given a closet where you can post pictures of yourself, your clothes, your accessories and other items that you would like to share with the community.

The site attracts anyone from college students looking for the latest deals to up-and-coming fashion designers waiting to be discovered, said Finn. This, in turn, gives designers a way to get their goods in front of an interested community.

Fa-fa-fa-fashion: B. Boutique brings in more bucks at OURthreads.com.

(Click for larger image.)

Boutique owners who are either looking for an alternative to eBay or simply want to add another sales channel now have an online venue where they can expand their clientele by connecting with people searching for unique merchandise. You can create a closet with select clothing and accessories to sell, rather than create your own storefront, or if you're already online, you can link back to your e-business.

"OURthreads gives boutiques and designers an instant Web presence," said Brooke Magdzinski, owner of B. Boutique, an independent retailer based out of Indiana. "The e-commerce aspect of this community allows me to reach people nationwide in a way that is incredibly cost effective."

OURthreads charges users a fee of 3.5 percent of the selling price of an item sold in the community. The company charges no posting or listing fees and trading is also free. Additionally, OURthreads ensures secure transactions by allowing shoppers to choose between PayPal, check or money order.

Meanwhile, for those looking to advertise, OURthreads offers affordable rates. "Our EasyAds are at the bottom of every page, and rates may change in the future, but for now you can run an ad for your shop for 1,000 views or two days, whichever is longest, for $10, and then it goes up the chain from there," said Finn. "Or if you want to advertise for a month or 16,000 views, it's only $96, so that's pretty inexpensive."

During the Daily Thread Videocast, host, Erin Davis, will guide users through featured closets, favorite items, the latest fashion trends and the hottest deals on the site. Special guest host, Katie Cook, host of "CMT Insider" on Country Music Television, will report on the latest fashion trends and news every Monday.

"We'll be adding more social networking features to the site as we go along," said Finn, who came up with the idea for the site with friend and co-founder Pete Yonkman when the two were commiserating about how their respective wives always asked them how they looked in certain outfits.

"We both thought it was funny that they'd be asking, 'Does this look good? What do you think of this?' so we decided to create a site where people could go and get fashion-related advice from each other." Said Finn, with a chuckle, "We're hoping it will mean no more fashion shows for us."

Michelle Megna is managing editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.

Do you have a comment or question about this article or other e-commerce topics in general? Speak out in the SmallBusinessComputing.com E-Commerce Forum. Join the discussion today!

Tools:

Add ecommerce-guide.com to your favorites

Add ecommerce-guide.com to your browser search box

IE 7 |

Firefox 2.0 |

Firefox 1.5.x

Receive news via our XML/RSS feed