Revolutionary is the right word. Knickerpicker.com has opened the door for a revolution in online lingerie shopping: video changing rooms. Having launched November 22nd of 2007, they’ve already gone on to generate natural traffic to the site beyond 20,000 people a day and have been heralded without prompting on many sites (Marie Claire ,etc) and blogs as a much needed step change in the fashion industry approach to online marketing. Yes, this is a dream come true for emerging labels, allowing them to show their underwear on a live model (and not just the supermodel-look ones!), for the customers to judge.
[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7204933420535037825&hl=nl[/googlevideo]
Want the model to step a little closer to your screen, allowing a closer look? Ask her! Want her to turn around and show the back of the panties (or her bum, I’m sure there is a massive male audience enjoying this website too!) — ask her! These women must be any man’s dream! 😉
Anyway, shopping-wise, this is a great tool. I’m sure when we see more retailers jumping on the bandwagon, this tool will be huge… Check it out!
I spotted knickpicker when it first launched and at first thought it was a great idea, even to the extent of thinking about something similar for our site (www.ever-so-sexy.com) but on reflection I am not so sure it is as exciting a development as I first thought. The reasons behind my second thoughts are this:
1. Women are more than three destinct shapes.
2. People buying lingerie offline don’t have a catwalk parade of three differently shaped models to judge what will suit them – they know what will suit them.
3. Men buying lingerie as a present for a woman are “close” enough to that woman to know her shape, know what she currently wears and know what suits her. – OK so sometimes they are a bit vague on the size issue, but this software does not solve that problem.
4. Underwear buying is (unless its a plain woollen vest) is buying a dream, whether its being bought by a man or a woman and so for a while they do want the “ideal” vision in their mind. People are not stupid – they know that the glamorous lingerie may not look quite so good as on the model, but they don’t really want to be reminded about that when they purchase the lingerie.
So my considered judgement of this development is that it is a fun gimick but will not have a series impact on the decisions of the online lingerie buyer.