Fairfax Media revamps e-commerce platforms to create The Store by Fairfax
Fairfax Media has overhauled its existing e-commerce platform currently branded as The Sydney Morning Herald Shop and The Age Shop to create The Store by Fairfax.
Fairfax Media recruited Trudi Jenkins, who joined the company in May as digital commerce director, to lead the overhaul efforts.
Jenkins has a mixed background having worked in both magazines and in e-commerce. She previously worked as editor-in-chief of Delicious magazine from August 2001 to November 2012 and has spent 11 months as a consultant with Redballoon Australia. Jenkins is also the director of editd.com.au, a strategy, content and design company.
“I was brought on board to look at the existing SMH and The Age Shops and how we could refresh them. We’ve come up with the slightly brand agnostic The Store by Fairfax so that we can market it as a destination and send all the traffic to one URL,” Jenkins explained.
“The opportunity in online retail spend in Australia in 2015 was $17.6b. If just 5% of our current audience spent $50 once a year with us, the revenue coming into The Store would be $32m. It’s quite a compelling opportunity.”
The overhaul of the platform has seen Fairfax Media draw on a number of curators well known to Fairfax readers to help develop the items available for sale.
The curators include: Karen McCartney, director at editd.com.au and author of architecture and design books; David Clark, former editor-in-chief of Vogue Living; Melissa Singer, The Age fashion and lifestyle director; Alex McCulloch, art consultant; Nadine Bush, group creative director Durie Design; Barbara Hermon, design consultant; Inez Garcia, fashion director and stylist; Neil Perry, chef.
“It’s a curated marketplace, drop ship model. So we don’t buy or warehouse any stock. It’s basically a marketing platform if you like for our various sellers,” Jenkins said.
“The product mix is a bit different from what was on the previous shops, it’s much more highly curated. I felt the existing mix was a little bit random. I wanted it to have a little bit more design-focus. It’s very much in that boutique, artisan, Australian-design space. It’s supporting Australian designers and artists.”
The Store by Fairfax is being promoted with a print campaign, created in-house, which rolls out tomorrow.
“We’re focusing on the people, it’s about these amazing, skilled craftspeople, artists and designers and the stories behind them,” Jenkins said.
Fairfax will also promote The Store with a digital campaign as well as across social media.
“We have a current Shop database of 60,000 that we will be targeting. We’ll also be targeting new visitors to sign up to that,” Jenkins said.
“We’ll be pitching in editorial opportunities. We can go to editorial anytime we think there is a great story that they might be interested in. There’s no compulsion on their part to run it though.”
On the database figure, Jenkins is keen to grow it.
“I’d like to double it as fast as I can and I don’t think that’s overly ambitious,” she said.
There is no advertising on The Store’s website.
“It needs to function first and foremost as a good e-commerce experience and it needs to feel premium and like a beautiful experience. I want people to get lost in the site, there will be videos they can watch and stories about the brands,” Jenkins said.
Fairfax Media will also offer its subscribers a 20% discount.
Miranda Ward worked for Mumbrella from 2013 to 2017, eventually becoming deputy editor. Miranda joined Mumbrella in September 2013 from Sky News.
Linkedin
If mumbrella didn’t report on this you would only read about it in a Fairfax article. Let’s hope it goes better than the big growth strategy announced back in 2013 around events, content marketing, SME digital and marketing services and data. Some analysis surrounding the outcomes of Hywoods many pronoucements would be rather depressing. Hence the Fairfax share price.
User ID not verified.
Wowsers, it’s 2016 and it has taken Fairfax this long to realise that to monetize their reach in 2016, they need to do more than publish. The Iconic and ASOS already have a serious slice of this pie. If Fairfax empower the team (like they have done with Domain, which is an awesome product, far better than REA), then they might have a chance. They are playing catch up; however, at last; they are seeing how to maximize their opportunities in the digital era.
User ID not verified.
Ah, the old $40 key ring !
https://www.thestore.com.au/quick-release-keyring
Pass.
User ID not verified.
Sadly, Fairfax is lacking in vision big style. Hywood’s eggs are certainly all in on Domain, Stan and Events and to deeply cut the cost base within APM. The thinking for APM is this needs to be adequate just until the aforementioned ventures are properly realised. All sad but all true.
User ID not verified.
Laughable effort really. This Fairfax initiative typically far too late and another classic missed opportunity: SEEK, Carsales. The Domain model fexhibits some hope for a chance but given form of late I’d expect thestore to go bust pretty soon.
Nice try though.
User ID not verified.
$219 for a cushion?! What a joke! won’t be returning with these outlandish prices.
User ID not verified.
5% conversion on 100% of their audience. Big call…
User ID not verified.