Shopstyle.com is an aggregator of fashion designers and stores, trying to help the online shopper replicate the actual shopping and browsing experience.
They currently have over 40 fashion retailers, including major department stores, mall retailers/boutiques, and designer-focused websites like Bluefly and ShopBop. You can shop by brand, by color, by style, by size…whatever suits your fancy. They also have a button that links you to the best sales going on in all of these sites. You can also purchase any item through this site, as if you were purchasing through the store. Finally, and perhaps most innovatively, the site allows users to create their own ‘Stylebooks,’ which contain their favorite fashion items and links to where you can purchase them. You can share stylebooks with your friends, put them up on the public viewing page, and help other users find the best fashion out there. Even though I’m not much of a shopper, this feature was the most fun and actually useful to see what the heck is out there in the fashion world.
Shopstyle.com In Their Own Words
Picture the fantasy fashion magazine—page after page devoted only to must-haves from the best stores and hottest designers. Now imagine shopping straight from those pages, without leaving home. That’s the need ShopStyle fills for the serious fashion consumer. And it’s just the beginning of a revolution in the fashion industry powered by technology.
Launched in January 2007 as the first and only shopping engine devoted entirely to fashion, ShopStyle.com gives style-conscious consumers a place to shop the online stores they trust, all in one place. An aggregator of both fashion and people, ShopStyle.com brings users together to build and share looks and Stylebooks with friends, family and the fashionista network.
Style is a personal expression of the individual. That’s why ShopStyle.com is engineered to make browsing more focused around personalized search parameters. Users shop by color, size, brand—whatever their style preferences. And they can create a fashionista profile to receive targeted recommendations from ShopStyle stylists.
They can also eavesdrop on what the style gurus are talking about. After all, fashion is highly opinion-based, with a handful of influencers and celebrities setting the trends in a given season. ShopStyle.com is a forum for fashion devotees to learn from industry icons, exchange ideas, even start trends of their own. It’s a better, smarter way to follow and shop fashion.
Why Shopstyle.com It Might Be A Killer
ShopStyle definitely seemed to have its pulse on the fashion industry, as well as a fun and unique approach to shopping and sharing fashion/design ideas. Given its close connection to the fashion world, this site has excellent potential to be the go-to site for online shoppers — as well as those who just love fasion and style in general. I really enjoyed their photos of celebrities and links to where to buy the same or similar products — I think that will be a huge hit, as they are emulated by millions of women. Also, it even allows those popular ‘stylebook’ creators to launch their own personal shopper type of business. Very smart!
Some Questions About Shopstyle.com
There are many online shopping sites – how is this site so different and how do they propose to keep a loyal user base? How are they going to make a profit, are they paid a fee by the stores they showcase on their site? Is there any reason they use the drab gray as their logo/design color scheme? For such a fun and girly site (for lack of a better description), it is awfully dull looking. 
