Shopping Allure

THE ALLURE OF SHOPPING: A comment Donatella Versace made to Linda Wells a few years ago got the Allure editor in chief thinking. “Donatella told me she buys everything the magazine recommends every month,” Wells recalled. The idea of marrying Allure’s editorial content with e-commerce was something that intrigued Wells. “We know that women have always shopped from the magazine,” she said, adding that many of Allure’s 700,000 monthly online readers bring pages torn from the magazine to stores. Now they won’t have to. Allure.com on Wednesday launched e-commerce through Quidsi, the parent of Soap.com and BeautyBar.com.

“Allure chose us because we’re able to offer mass and prestige beauty,” said BeautyBar.com site director Katina Mountanos. The integration of content and commerce is intended to be seamless. Shoppers reading an expert review can click a “buy now” button to purchase the product and a shopping cart will start to fill, following them through the Web site. At checkout, consumers are taken to Beautybar.com. A product finder tool, driven by thousands of Allure product review pages, offers personalized recommendations. Wells said the relaunched Web site will keep a firm line between “church and state” — advertising and editorial. “We went about this very carefully and very thoughtfully,” she said. “Our integrity and independence is our editorial identity. In the magazine we cover products that are advertised and products that aren’t. It’s the same with the e-commerce.”

(WWD)