Dive Brief:
- Net-a-Porter has added an iPhone app to its print and iPad versions, and the new app will be both ad- and subscriber-supported like the existing content meaning the app will be free to download, but users will have to pay for the content.
- The fashion company added the iPhone app because 40% of its purchases are made on mobile, and the app is another piece in Founder Natalie Massenet’s strategy to combine fashion content and commerce, a goal that has been elusive for other brands, such as Refinery29.
- The iPhone app will be 65% editorial and 35% advertising and the launch edition will include a 33-page supplement sponsored by Elizabeth Arden called, “100 Incredible Women.”
Dive Insight:
In 2014, Net-a-Porter launched Porter magazine in print and as an iPad app with long-form content and 7,500 products that could be bought through the app or by scanning the print version with a smartphone. The new iPhone app is another step in combining fashion content and commerce.
Tess Macleod-Smith, vp of publishing at Net-a-Porter Group, told Digiday, “Our reader still loves print; there’s an authority in that, but she’s also on the go. On average, she is traveling 11 times a year, so we needed the mobile app.”
Net-a-Porter is dedicated to this content-meets-commerce intersection; 20% of the products on the app can be found at Net-a-Porter and the rest linked back to retailers’ websites. The company tracks its users' moves, from consuming content to making purchases, and uses that data to personalize articles shown to users as a means to drive sales.
"We’re a technology company. Our plan is to enhance our data and expertise and close that gap of impulsivity," Macleod-Smith said.