California Apparel News

Atlanta-based entrepreneur Lauren Taylor Baker likes feedback when she shops, and as she launches Couture Society (http://couturesociety.com), an online shopping search engine that focuses on social networking, she’s banking that women who shop online feel the same.

The site, which is billed as a “social shopping utility,” debuted this month after soft-launching in July. Like some other sites, Couture Society compiles items from online retailers and brands in real time and makes them searchable by users according to style, price, brand and retailer. Unlike many other sites, however, Couture Society allows users to create a profile, create friend networks, build wish lists that are viewable by friends, and even chat on the site as they peruse the goods and make purchases.

“A lot of sites have an absence of the social aspects. Couture Society is a search engine and a social network combined,” said Baker, who, prior to launching Couture Society, held the post of creative director for an East Coast bricks-and-mortar and online retailer. The social aspect of shopping that women get when they go into stores with their friends is an important part of shopping that is hard to come by online, Baker said.

To create a sense of community, Baker and a team of software developers created a customized search engine based on the popular Ruby on Rails program and built in a variety of ways shoppers can share information. For example, Couture Society users can send friends notices about a great pair of jeans or a little black dress via Facebook, Instant Messenger and Twitter. They can also chat directly on the site using a built-in chat function.

Baker acknowledges that other sites have also combined shopping and social networking, but, she said, Couture Society’s focus on ease of use, shopping experience and design aesthetic sets it apart from others. “We put a lot of time and energy into creating a site that users will love to spend time on. It organizes online shopping into a central and easy-to-use site.”

Baker declined to estimate how many shoppers will join Couture Society, which requires users to register, but she said 2010 will see the addition of new social-networking features, including virtual closets and the ability for shoppers to interact more directly with brands and retailers through the site.

It must be noted that Couture Society functions as a fashion marketing site—it doesn’t sell goods but rather directs shoppers to retailers’ and brands’ sites for purchases. So far, Couture Society pulls items from approximately 40 high-end and budget retailers and brands (including Target, Charlotte Russe, Yoox.com, Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue and RevolveClothing.com), with more than 200 other brands and retailers under contract to be added to the site. At press time, more than 250,000 items were catalogued and searchable on CoutureSociety.—Erin Barajas