Svpply
Department stores have spent years trying to figure out how to build compelling online experiences for their customers. Looking at what is out there today, its fair to say they have all failed.
Selling clothing and accessories is a difficult proposition. Most people visiting the Barney’s locations in NYC don’t know what they want before they go into the store, and the whole in-store experience is set-up to help customers find the products they want. That discovery is incredibly difficult to replicate online.
Svpply is going after the problem. As well as employing a killer interface, they use power-members to find and categorize products. The resultant stream gets fed to site visitors, and can be adjusted using filter preferences each visitor can set. You can like/dislike the products you are shown to improve the quality of your stream. And ciritcally, Svpply only shows you products you can buy, immediately, and will take you to the check-out cart in a couple of clicks. That means there is no disappointment when you find something you love and want.
I believe that Svpply works because its replicating the offline shopping experience in an online environment. The fact is, in-store shopping is compelling and drives mass purchase behavior - its not broken.
Svpply uses power-members like in-store merchandisers, it only displays items that are currently in-stock, and it lets its visitors use their personal preferences to refine the products that they get to see.
Its smart, and its damn beautiful.
