Life's A Beach

Kate Bosworth modelling
one of her designs

Taking advantage of society’s obsession with celebrities, Santa Monica start-up company BeachMint is promoting celebrity endorsed e-commence with great success. Started by Diego Berdakin and MySpace cofounder Josh Berman, BeachMint was founded to make waves in social commerce.

Launching its first project in October last year, BeachMint collaborated with Kate Bosworth and her stylist Cher Coulter to create JewelMint. Every piece of jewellery was designed by Bosworth and Coulter.  Consumers sign up for the site and once a month they will be able to choose from a handful of Bosworth/Coulter-designed pieces, each of which costs $29.99. The point of difference is the jewellery made available to you will be tailored to your taste.

After first looking at JewelMint, users will be asked to complete a quiz that establishes their taste and style. This will then limit the designs shown to them each month. Users can choose to skip a month if they do not see a piece they like and will not be charged.

Rachel Bilson's design
for charity

BeachMint is another company using “smart shopping” to make buying more efficient for consumers. Instead of trawling through hundreds of options, consumers can utilise a more personalised way to shop.

Under a new initiative launched in February this year, JewelMint announced a JewelMint Celebrity Guest Curator Series. A chosen celebrity will design one piece of jewellery for the collection and 50% of the sale price from that item will be donated to charity. Celebrities these days are keen to be involved with charitable work, so this is a great way for the company to get some big star power on board.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen

After gaining credibility in the fashion world with their lines The Row and Elizabeth and James, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are the newest additions to the BeachMint fold. The twins announced earlier this month that the will be launching StyleMint, their personalized platform which will offer an exclusive range of t-shirts designed by the twins, as well as trend reports and videos. Due to launch in July this year, the twins believe it’s the “perfect medium for them to create a new brand that is as much about the clothing as it is about the customer experience.”

As discussed in I’m Feeling Lucky and Democratic Design, this new wave of tailored e-commerce is the way of the future. No longer will consumers be satisfied with basic online shopping, they will increasingly be expecting this kind of curated services.

The power of celebrity endorsement is also important. Choosing the right stars to endorse a brand is important for businesses. Not every star has the same fashion credibility and it can seriously hinder your brand if you pick the wrong one.

With e-commerce continuously evolving and improving, traditional bricks and mortar retailers will need to adapt or risk losing significant business to their online competitors.


Information sourced from http://www.powerretail.com.au/news/olsen-twins-to-launch-e-commerce-venture-stylemint/, http://www.stylebistro.com/Daily+Dish/articles/a2pYTT2rL6H/Rachel+Bilson+Partners+Kate+Bosworth+JewelMint and http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/23/beachmint-raises-10-million-for-celebrity-endorsed-ecommerce/