Speaking of polo shirts, Ralph Lauren has two apps: Ralph Lauren Collection and Rugby Ralph Lauren, the latter of which lets users customize rugby shirts and buy them right then and there. But that’s not the case at the designer’s Collection app, where customers can rotate an image of the iconic Ricky bag, but a shopping cart icon is nowhere in sight. Company execs say there are no plans to add m-commerce to the app, even though Lauren’s son David notes that he and his father are both big app fans. “My favorite one is Shazam,” says David, the company’s senior vice president of advertising, referring to the app that recognizes any song playing by holding the phone in the air. “And I always visit the Rugby app, because I love showing my friends how to create their own designs.”
Shoppers can’t whip up their own button-downs at Gap StyleMixer, but they can virtually match the clothes in their closet with those of the retailer’s—and buy any item (excluding children’s) they desire from its m-commerce store, which was added to the app in December. “We started to get feedback from users who were saying things like, ‘Oh, I really like that jacket, but I wish I could buy it,’” says Grace Wong, senior director of brand communications. As for the StyleMixer shtick, Wong likens it to Clueless. “Remember when Alicia Silverstone’s in her rotating closet?” Wong asks. “Imagine you had your whole closet on your app, and you could put outfits together, save them and share them with friends. That’s what we’re doing.”
While companies like the Gap and Rugby have pushed themselves to get creative with their apps, some Web sites barely had to rethink their strategies. Gilt Groupe, for instance, revolves around exclusive online sample sales that begin every day at noon Eastern time and end 36 hours later. So the company’s m-commerce app, Gilt on the Go, was a no-brainer. “We had a number of very vocal customers who were kind of crying out because they weren’t at their desks when our sales were starting,” says Shan-Lyn Ma, director of product management. Net-a-Porter’s app, meanwhile, mimics its Web site experience, which means access to more than 300 luxury brands with a few taps. (This just in: Net-a-Porter and J. Crew have teamed up. So come May, some of the retailer’s merch can be snapped up on Net-a-Porter’s app.)
Shopping is the holy grail for customers, but for now there are many fashion apps out there still missing that magic “Buy now” key. And at Gucci that’s by design. “I didn’t want it to be a one-dimensional, fashion-only app,” says Giannini, who teamed up with producer pal Mark Ronson to create the app’s custom playlists and Gucci Beats, a virtual turntable of sorts where guests can DJ mixes. “I started from the idea of creating an intersection of fashion, music, lifestyle and technology—but music is at the heart of it.”
