Dive Brief:
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Amazon announced the premiere of its first daily live show, Style Code Live, dedicated to fashion and beauty, featuring style experts and live chat—and it’s shoppable.
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Style Code Live streams free on the Amazon Video website Monday through Thursday at 6:00 p.m. ET, with a best-of show on Fridays.
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The first 30-minute live show aired Tuesday evening, with Danielle Bernstein, founder of fashion blog WeWoreWhat, sharing her top spring fashion choices. This week Grammy winner Meghan Trainor, actor Keri Russell and YouTube star Tati Westbrook will also appear.
Dive Insight:
Amazon usually reserves its programming for its Prime members, but Style Code Live will be free to anyone, and for good reason. The e-retail giant is pushing aggressively into the apparel space, a tough but lucrative area of retail, and Style Code Live is just the latest move to help put it on the fashion map: Amazon also was a sponsor of the 2012 Costume Institute Benefit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for example, and last year was the marquee sponsor of the first New York Fashion Week for men.
Style Code is a combination of content and shoppability, which Reuters notes could give the likes of cable shopping channel QVC a run—or runway—for its money.
“Our customers love fashion, and have wanted a place to keep up with new trends and get expert tips. We created Style Code Live for them, and we are just getting started with this show,” Style Code Live chief Munira Rahemtulla said in a statement.
Style Code Live features Lyndsey Rodrigues (who has hosted MTV’s Total Request Live), Rachel Smith (a correspondent for ABC News for Good Morning America and Nightline) and Frankie Grande (a television personality and theater actor known for appearing on CBS’s Big Brother reality show and the Broadway musical Rock of Ages).
Fashion has been something of a tough sell for Amazon. Its site carries some 2,500 clothing labels, including the likes of Theory, BCBG Max Azria, and Stuart Weitzman, in addition to its own label, but many upscale brands have been slow to feature on the site, wary of Amazon's bargain prices and workaday website.
Still, some 40 million U.S. customers last year bought clothing, shoes or accessories on Amazon. Style Code Live could be a neat marketing trick that helps Amazon move the needle on its assortment as well as its sales.
