Amazon turns to Refinery29, celebs for holiday attention

Dive Brief:

Refinery29 and Amazon last week launched a holiday pop-up in New York City with a star-studded party with Katie Holmes, Karlie Kloss and Olivia Palermo in attendance.
The pop-up, which opened to the public last Thursday, will run through Dec. 15 in the city's SoHo shopping district, according to a press release emailed to Retail Dive. Merchandise, including home goods, apparel and gifts, has been curated by influencers like actress Jamie Chung, fashion and beauty blogger Sai de Silva, and chef and writer Gaby Dalkin.
Amazon previously has tapped celebrities like Mariah Carey and Chris Pratt to curate dedicated pages of goods sold on the site.

Dive Insight:

Amazon has already raked in a lot of sales this season — the company recently said that its five-day sales over the Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday weekend broke records, along with the rest of retail.

But while the e-commerce giant is on pace to have a robust holiday, its dearth of physical stores is something of a liability when it comes to marketing. Most retail sales are still conducted offline, and Amazon's Prime members appear to be especially inclined to head to stores.

Eighty-eight percent of shoppers cited making in-store purchases in the past month, compared to 59% online and 38% on retailers' mobile apps, according to an August DMI survey, where 55% of respondents said they're Amazon Prime members. They told DMI researchers that they were 44% likely to shop in-store at least once a week.

This year some believe that stores, especially those with buy online, pick up in-store options, could be especially advantaged because there are six fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, making e-commerce delivery less practical as the days wear on. And stores have the added advantage of appealing to shoppers with a level of holiday spirit that is best enjoyed offline, something that department stores once particularly excelled at.

In a statement regarding the Refinery29 tie-up, Carmen Nestares, chief marketing officer of Amazon Fashion, seemed to appreciate that, although those shopping the pop-up will have to have their orders delivered.

"We're thrilled to offer our customers a fun, interactive shopping experience with the convenience of having items shipped straight to their door," she said. "All styles available at the pop-up have been curated by the Refinery29 fashion and lifestyle editors, as well as influencers such as Jamie Chung and Sai de Silva."