Fashion's new online shopping platform launched this week, featuring more than 1,500 clothing items and fashion accessories for sale from partnering retailers curated by Fashion editors.

Readers that click items on the shopping page are redirected to a retailer's e-commerce site. For now, Fashion and retailers share revenue, though publisher St. Joseph Media notes that more options and packages will open up eventually. Angie McKaig, director of digital lifestyle brands, said in an email that the company anticipates at least some of its clients will choose to bundle a shopping portal partnership with traditional advertising on FashionMagazine.com.


Fashion is the latest of a steadily swelling number of titles to offer online shopping. Last year, Hearst's Harper's Bazaar launched Shop Bazar, with 80% of its merchandise coming from Saks Fifth Avenue. In Canada in April, Rogers Media's LouLou premiered LouLouShopping.com. While for now Fashion strictly uses a revenue-sharing model, LouLou opts for a more typical advertising type of partnership where advertisers purchase space in the store.

As of launch, Fashion's portal is separate from the rest of the website but will begin integrating with editorial content later this week. This growing trend crosses old boundaries to blur advertising and editorial, but Fashion stresses that offerings are curated by the mag's staff. Said McKaig about the oncoming blending, "that's why it's so crucial that every product pick in Fashion Shopping comes from an editor."

"From a business perspective, Fashion Shopping makes so much sense," McKaig said in a St. Joseph Media release. "The revenue-sharing model is a win-win for everyone involved."

According to Fashion's online editor Randi Bergman, "it feels natural to close the gap between what our readers lust over on our site and how they eventually purchase the items." Exclusive offerings are also in the works, and beauty products will be added to the lineup later this year.

[*This story has been updated]