Magnetique offers a new way to find high end apparel
In an ever increasingly competitive marketplace, luxury brands are finding new ways to reach their target market. In the mobile app industry, a new free app has launched named Magnetique; available for download from iTunes and Google Play, this app is a fashionista’s dream come true.
The Magnetique app helps fashion fans find the latest trends from national magazines. Currently, Glamour and InStyle are on board with the new venture and feature May and June 2013 fashions.
Included in InStyle are fashions by Ella Moss, French Connection, J. Crew, Calvin Klein and Marc Jacobs to name a few. Because these are the latest fashion trends, they have price tags to match.
Glamour’s fashions have a distinctive, red-carpet look and price point. Fashions included are a dress worn by Amanda Seyfried by Bottega Veneta ($8,300), a blue lace dress by Elie Saab for $7,300 and others. The app, for all of its high priced apparel, has a feeling of being incomplete, with many of the items having “N/A” for a price listing and even some entries being discontinued from 2012. A few are missing pictures entirely.
Connecting shoppers with retailers
The purpose for the app is to connect shoppers looking for these fashions with the stores in their area carrying the item. It’s a clear attempt to take readers of the popular fashion magazines past just looking at fashions and getting them into the stores to buy them.
Clicking on an image redirects the user to an online website but not always to the specific item for purchase. The app also has the capability to capture items from magazine pages using the camera but during testing, I sadly didn’t have a magazine available to try that function. Regardless, the app still has room for improvement even though the possibilities are impressive. There are also limitations with the geography portion of the app as some fashions are not offered locally or even nationally and can only be found with the designer.
Don’t expect to see lower priced retailers included in the app anytime soon, if at all. It’s clear this app is catering to a high-income market segment and females only. Men might find it handy for finding the hard-to-find item on their sweetie’s wish list but no men’s fashions are included in the app currently. A welcome email from Magnetique made it clear they’re committed to adding new fashion magazines monthly.
