Niche Aggregators are on the Rise

Every now and then, we get sites wanting to spread the word of their launch, and over the weekend that happened to me. On Saturday I got an email from Elle at BrandsLane.com, telling me all about their new site, so I figured I’d share it with you.

We’ve been seeing the trend of personalization in daily deals grow as time goes on. Niche buying and highly targeted sites are becoming more and more popular. Just the other day I told you about Ingo Salons, a deal aggregator for salon deals across the country (which started out as just a salon directory).  BrandsLane.com isn’t a flash sale site, or a daily deals site that sources its own deals, but is a fashion-only aggregator.

Elle designed a Q&A for Daily Deal Media readers to find out more about her site. The following is what she sent me:

(**This is not a blatant Daily Deal Media endorsement for Brandslane.com, as I haven’t tried the site, this is for information purposes only**)

Give me your 3-word pitch?
Yipit For Fashion.

About 6 words?
Your Favorite Designers Newsletters In One Newsletter. (7, we couldn’t do 6)

Give me your one liner?
Brandslane is your favorite boutiques and designers trends, sales and updates in one curated newsletter.

Tell me what Brandlane does?
We curate newsletters from hundreds of designers & boutiques and send subscribers the best of it in a daily email. In other words we are a Yipit for Fashion.

What problem are you trying to solve?
We help fashionistas keep up with the brands they love and discover new trends/designers.

1) Keeping up with designers’ latest collection, sales, samples isn’t easy. Instead of signing up for email updates from each of their favorite brands and waking up to that many emails every day, users subscribe to one newsletter. We gather, curate and send them the best of it in one email.

2) Discovering new designers and trends isn’t easy either. In this sense we aren’t unique. Companies like Shefinds do a great job at this. Because we follow boutiques that do a great job at introducing up and coming designers who may not necessarily have a newsletter, we are able to introduce users to new designers that meet their taste.

What does the product look like?
Have a look here http://www.brandslane.com/user/email

How many updates you post per day?
We post nearly 20 items a day, and plan to reach 100 per day soon on our site, however our email newsletter is curated and limited to 15 items max.

How many users do you have?
We can give you a politically correct answer, but we have a feeling you would smell the BS.

Who is your target customer?
1) The fashion lover who wants to know what their favorites designers are currently offering and what the new trends are.
2.) The guy or gal who wants to just discover new designers.
3) Brands are also our customers. We aren’t a final destination. JimmyChoo.com, NicoleMiller.com, Ssense.com, etc… That’s where the user ends up. Brandslane is just a bridge.

What’s your plan for next six months?
Follow more boutiques and up and coming brands, and be where the subscribers want us to be, meaning a mobile experience. You can currently access Brandslane on your phone or tablet, but we are planning to launch native apps.

How are you different from the Gilts, HauteLooks, Kings Lane of the world?
Daily deals model is different. They are great, however if you miss the Jimmy-Choo on HauteLook sale you will have to wait for the next one. I wouldn’t recommend holding your breath on that one. Our take is Jimmy Choo already reaches out to its audience via email. In my opinion the best deals come straight from the designers. So that’s what we are banking on. BL is complimentary to Gilt, Hautelook and the likes. What makes them weak makes us strong and what makes us strong makes them weak.

How much did you raise, from whom and Why?
Zero. Obviously from noone. No particular reason or maybe no time for it yet.

What’s the coolest Brandslane feature?
It’s simplicity.

What do you think is the next trend in fashion + ecommerce?
We do not dwell too much on this. We just build what we want ourselves.