USA Today reports on retailers that have adopted blogs as a marketing tool.
The online retail industry is seeing opportunity in the blog boom. Retailers are creating blogs — a term derived from Web logs, or online musings — to promote brand awareness and sales.
For instance Bluefly.com, an online retailer of designer clothes, updates customers on fashion-related news through its blog Flypaper.
The blog “encourages them to visit often to check postings on styles, designers and fashion faux pas,” says Melissa Payner-Gregor, CEO of Bluefly.com. The company’s fashion spotters around the country post items on Flypaper, which launched in April.
Flypaper’s customers typically have relied for fashion news on magazines such as Vogue. Now, they also have the blog as an information source, and the company has an opportunity for an interactive relationship.
It is potentially a lucrative one. A recent study by online market research firm ComScore Networks found that shoppers who visit blogs spend about 6% more than the average online shopper.
