Rebecca Taylor's Richard Paris on Social Media and Fashion

We recently met Richard Paris, Director of e-commerce at Rebecca Taylor at their boutique on Mott Street in NYC to chat about social media and technology and how it affects the fashion industry.

CHIC.TV: In your opinion, how does social media influence fashion?

Richard: In fashion there’s always something new. It’s an evolving industry. The way we communicate should evolve as well. Social media created an opportunity to disseminate information quickly to fans. The beauty of this is that fans are the ones talking about the product. Facebook, for instance, is a non intrusive way to communicate a brand message to the consumer.

CHIC.TV: Why is social media so beneficial for brands as a marketing tool?

Richard: When social media sites began, they weren’t meant to be used as a marketing tool. Eventually people began to discover that social media could be used for marketing. People are more focused on how they use social media. For instance, we started a Facebook sweepstakes called the “Sparkly Tights Sweepstakes”. We had a great pair of Swarovski studded leggings from Fall 2010 line. We felt that photos didn’t communicate the movement of leggings effectively so we uploaded a video of the leggings to our YouTube and Facebook pages and ended up having a waiting list for the leggings. We’re now running a sweepstakes where you can enter on our Facebook fan page to win a pair of the leggings. The sweepstakes has increased our Facebook friends by over 1000 within 3 weeks.

CHIC.TV: What do you think is the future of social media?

Richard: I expect to see more Industry focused social networking sites. Also, video is replacing imagery on websites. Video is great because it give you the full motion of a product.

CHIC.TV: Where do you spend your time online?

Richard: I read pop culture blogs like Gawker and TMZ. They’re the “cliffnotes” of pop culture. I also spend a lot of time on Facebook. For business news I go to the Wall Street Journal online. It’s very important for me to have an understanding of the global marketplace. I also visit tech driven sites like Mashable.com and female driven publications like WWD.com.

CHIC.TV: What do you think about sample sale websites like Gilt.com?

It’s great because it’s like event shopping. I think that people like the excitement of being a part of a live event. It creates an immediacy. It’s more of an organic way of shopping.

CHIC.TV: Tell us about e-commerce at Rebecca Taylor.

Richard: Our e-commerce site is a little more than a year old. Our first step was to have a strong store presence. “at Rt.com it’s purely us and we’re able to present the product in that way”

CHIC.TV: What makes shopping at RebeccaTaylor.com different than buying Rebecca Taylor pieces on websites like Saks.com?

Richard: Our site is focused completely to Rebecca Taylor rather than other sites that focus on many brands. We spent a lot of time making a website that’s simplistic, clean, embodies Rebecca Taylor image. The Rebecca Taylor site presents our product brand and lifestyle in the most ideal environment as possible.

Visit Rebecca Taylor's e commerce site at https://estore.rebeccataylor.com/store.aspx to learn more and don't forget to become a fan of their facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/MyRebeccaTaylor.