Social shopping site Polyvore arrives in Australia

octomedia

21st Apr 2016

Social shopping site, Polyvore, is ramping up its Australian presence, announcing a local partnership with Yahoo7.

US internet company, Yahoo, acquired the Polyvore site in 2015 to capitalise on the synergy between content creation, native advertising and e-commerce.

The fashion site lets users play style editor and arrange products from different brands into outfits, or “sets”, which can be shared. Polyvore does not have an e-commerce platform, but directs shoppers to transact on retailers’ sites.

Essentially an advertising channel for product discovery and recommendations, retailers on the platform pay Polyvore based on the traffic it drives to their online stores.

“We are excited to launch a local collaboration with leading social shopping site, Polyvore,” said Ed Harrison, CEO of Yahoo7. “This collaboration will provide a more advanced solution for our advertising and retail partners to better target their consumers, and allow Australian style lovers to purchase the most sought after local pieces.”

Polyvore launched in 2007 and has 20 million monthly users, 400,000 of those are based in Australia and New Zealand.

“Polyvore is about e-commerce, but it is also about great content, it’s about ideas, it’s about community,” said Paul Sigaloff, commercial director at Yahoo7.

The collaboration aims to connect advertisers with shoppers in a more contextually relevant environment, and power native shopping ads that drive traffic and sales to retailers. 

“If you are an existing retailer, one of the things you want to do is tap into those engaged users that have an appetite to shop, but also do it in a way that is really, really seamless,” Sigaloff said.

“Back in the day, you would create content, create a shop and ultimately try to drive people to that destination. I think what’s changed from a consumption perspective globally is that now content is everywhere and having that singular approach of ‘let’s advertise and drive people to a singular destination’ has changed.”  

Sigaloff said advertisers on the platform receive an average of $6 in sales for every $1 spent placing an ad on Polyvore.