• Polyvore drives 20% of all social commerce
• It has 20 Million unique visitors per month
• Largest average basket size of $383 (Pinterest:$199, Facebook:$92)
• Average household income of Polyvore members is $78K per annum.

Having worked closely with Fashion brands I am amazed at the lack of awareness amongst them towards Polyvore, which is what motivated me to write this article. Through this article, I want to give you an insight into Polyvore’s enormous ability to build an audience for your brand. I also want to provide you with actionable steps to take on Polyvore to drive high quality traffic to your website. How your brand can benefit from Polyvore you may ask? Well plenty of ways:

• To  generate word of mouth advertising for your brand
• To find new influencers to promote your brand
• To launch and promote your new collections
• To project your products as a part of a larger ongoing trend
• To show celebrities using products of your brand or something similar

How to use Polyvore? There are plenty of articles & videos about how you can use Polyvore to create an account on Polyvore. All you have to do is:

1. Create a profile
2. Load your products
3. Create sets / collages of your products for users to discover
4. Engage with other Polyvore users

Instead of basics, I want my post to focus only on the business case of Polyvore . Let’s talk about ways you can use Polyvore in different ways to grow your ecommerce business.

1) Using Polyvore for Advertising

You might be surprised to know that Polyvore has an  average order value of ($383), higher than Facebook($92), Pinterest($199) & Twitter($58) combined. Thus, the sets that are created by the members serve as a great word of mouth advertising for your brand. It’s important for you as a brand to understand that your customers use Polyvore in 3 key ways:

1. Your potential customers use Polyvore for DiscoveryWith its wide reach of members, it’s a great platform for your customers to find you.
2. They use Polyvore to get InspiredIt’s a community that is inherently more interactive than other social media platforms out there and thus has an ability to drive more sales.
3. Your customers use Polyvore as a comparison shopping engine The sets and collections created on Polyvore each have  a link to the original source of the item on your ecommerce site where your customers can get product/price specifications and a link to shop the same. This makes it easier for your potential customers to be informed and compare products before making a buying decision.

Examples of practical application:

• Create your own brand sets: Showcase your products as parts of aspirational themes. Include your logo in your creations to create brand awareness.

• Tell your story: You can create sets to teach your audience how to put together a wardrobe with your products

Stories about color themes like this Pink Cardigan set

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Stories attached to a celebration like this #Mother’s day

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Stories about your new spring line like this The smell of spring

• Choosing Keywords: Search the keywords relevant to your brand (you can use Google Adwords Keyword Planner). While deciding on which keywords to use for your sets, think like the searcher who would be searching for your products.

2) Using Polyvore for Influencer Marketing

Polyvore can bring some very high-value shopper referrals to your website, especially if your brand/products are mentioned by the top influencers on the platform  Thus, influencers play a large role in the buying decisions of your customers, whether they are searching for a product or in the intent phase when they just want to know the opinion of others about a product. When I say brand influencers, I don’t just mean celebrities or fashion bloggers. I am also talking about the everyday consumers or Polyvore users who have just as much influence on your customers.

Polyvore members can act as excellent influencers for your brand, 82% of the members on Polyvore are female, and they are twice as likely to provide advice on fashion, beauty and online shopping than an average consumer. On a monthly basis there are close to 1.9 million sets created which serve as social impressions of your brand yielding great returns and customer retention rate for it. When looking for influencers for your brand, you need to pay attention to their reach ie. number of followers he/she has on social media platforms and their credibility in the eyes of these followers.

Examples of practical application:

• Partner with bloggers or top influencers who’re using Polyvore actively: Search bloggers or users with a large following, whose content (sets) match with the aesthetics of your brand. Request them to create a set featuring your product in return of incentives like a free product or a mention of their blog on your website.

• Keep track of activity: If you observe a member has used your product in her set, make sure that you thank them and if possible reward them with a discount code or something similar. This will encourage other users like her on Polyvore  to use your products regularly in their creations.

3)  Using Polyvore for Content Marketing 

Studies prove that customers trust content from an unaffiliated source more than any other. When customers stumble upon Polyvore sets featuring your products, there is a high chance of them developing an interest in your brand. Polyvore fits the bill perfectly; it acts as an excellent platform for 3rd party visual content with inbuilt ecommerce functions. What makes it more valuables is that this content is created voluntarily by Polyvore users unaffiliated with any company. And its members have all the tools at their disposal, to create masterpieces out of ordinary product images. By integrating your products within the Polyvore experience, you are guaranteed native interactions and brand awareness at low cost. Examples of practical application:

• Host contests: If you are looking to increase your brand visibility, host a contest and have your group members create a set using your products. Reward the best one with a free product of your brand. You can also host the contest through official Polyvore channels which gets you a  prominent placement on their homepage.
• Share your sets on Social Media: Don’t forget to share the user generated Polyvore sets on other social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest to capitalize through #hashtags and @mentions.

4)  Using Polyvore for Market Intelligence

Imagine if you could have data on your customers preferences. How much easier would it be for you to plan your inventory, marketing messages and other key areas of your business accurately? Polyvore gives you just that. It’s a goldmine of real-time trending information and analytics. You can  find generic data like Polka dot dresses and studded jackets are currently in vogue or more specific data relevant to your own brand, for example you can use Polyvore to discover that a product which is  receiving lot of engagement from Polyvore users in New York but it’s not so popular in Polyvore users in San Francisco.

Examples of practical application: Listen intently to Polyvore community: You can find valuable insights into the mind of your customers by taking note of which of your products are being used most, how are they being styled insets, etc. The comments left on the sets would be a great starting point for this.

Keep an eye on what’s trending on Polyvore. This can help you align your current and future collections accordingly

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Polyvore Remix is a great source of trend-related data as shows what’s trending daily. It has an outfit and styling generator based on the season’s biggest trends.

5)  Polyvore for Social Engagement

With Polyvore, you can find hidden market opportunities by interacting directly with your current and potential customers. Polyvore encourages native interactions between its members. A customer will engage with your brand’s content only when there is something in it for them. Something fun something creative, something to talk about, something that makes them feel rewarded and important. They can ‘create’, ‘like’, ‘comment’, be a part of groups they admire or contests they like. A study by Business2community reported 46 percent of millennials to rely on social media when shopping online. To create a memorable brand you will have to consistently work towards giving them enough buzz to keep them engaged. Examples of practical application:

• Follow other users: When you start following a user a notification is sent to them to follow you back. The simple social media math applies to Polyvore as well – The more followers your brand has, the more people (including general users & influencers) will find your products.

• ‘Like’ and ‘comment’: Engage with user-generated content. It encourages community members to notice your brand and engage with your products.

• Add the Polyvore clipper button to your product pages: The Polyvore button allows users to save the products to their Polyvore account without leaving your product page. If you offer this button to the Polyvore users on your website,  they are likely to share your products with other users, giving your brand more visibility in their Polyvore network.

Polyvore has many success stories to its credit. Juicy Couture and Modcloth are two such brands who have adapted to the Polyvore way and have seen their ROIs and sales soar to new levels.

Closing lines In an increasingly digitalized age the critical choice a fashion brand has to make is whether it will adapt, evolve and position itself on an emerging and popular social shopping site such as Polyvore or eventually lose out to competitors who may be more responsive to the trend. Already using Polyvore to market your brand? Have more ideas? Or if you have any questions about Polyvore Marketing, please feel free to leave them in the comment section below.