If Aerie’s sky-high sales have taught us anything, it’s that we love a body-positive brand. Combine that with an awesome user experience and there’s no telling how far you’ll go.
Enter Fovo, a recently launched e-commerce marketplace that presents “a customized feed of products, content and expert advice for your unique shape and tastes.” The site’s founder, Kiana Anvaripour of luxury shapewear brand dMondaine, along with Zappos’ creator and Fovo investor Nick Swinmurn, may be seriously on to something.
The fashion industry moguls have already made it big thanks to their customer experience savvy. Anvaripour harnessed women’s desire for innovative, fashion-forward, sexy shapewear styles and built herself a lingerie empire. For Swinmurn, the knowledge that people value easy access to a range of products, pertinent reviews and expediency when shopping (and returning) from home laid the groundwork for a multi-million dollar business.
Now, the two have combined their talents to bring us consumers something their field has been sorely lacking: product pages based on our individual shapes. Anyone who has shopped online is familiar with the Herculean challenge of blindly finding a piece that flatters. Media outlets know features like “10 Tips for Finally Finding Your Bod’s Best Swimsuit” (shameless plug) will boost their traffic precisely because shoppers crave body-tailored content.
Fovo is here to fill that void. When you visit the site, customers are prompted to “discover their shape” by answering several questions: What is your favorite part of the body to show off? On any given Monday, what do you wear? Which style icon does your body resemble the most? On any given Saturday, what do you wear? How do you prefer your clothes to fit? What size do you normally wear in jeans, dresses, and tops? What hem length works best for you?
Anvaripour and Swinmurn’s algorithm (which took two years to devise) then generates a product assortment which can be filtered down based on budget. Affiliate partner brands include everything from H&M to Neiman Marcus. Fovo also provides styling tips and explanations of why these particular items fit your tastes and needs. It’s essentially a free personal shopper.
“Shape is missing from the top of the purchasing funnel online,” explains Anvaripour. “But it’s there at the top of mind when you shop in store. I knew we had to implement that experience for e-commerce.” And when she says shape, Anvaripour does not mean size. The company offers up to a 32 (although, unfortunately, not all its partner brands do), but you won’t see the words “plus-size” anywhere on your feed.
“Things are changing with the current generation,” continued Anvaripour. “We’re embracing curves, thankfully. Size has a stigma, but shape is something to highlight, and we want no labels for women to find something that looks great.”
And with that, let us shop.
[ via Glossy ]
