Polyvore Collages Are In Fashion

Polyvore is looking to fashion itself a niche as a user-generated fashion magazine that contains user-generated ads and an interesting way for users to shop: Users create collages featuring pictures of clothes, accessories and models, and clicking on a particular article of clothing or accessory takes them to the Website where they can purchase it, The New York Times reported.

And it seems to be working: According to Web-analytics firm Compete, Polyvore beat out Vogue‘s Style.com and InStyle.com in terms of unique visitors in June, tallying 835,000. The company claims it has tripled its traffic in the past year, the Times reports.

Polyvore earns a commission when users click on or purchase clothes from certain e-commerce sites, and the Times said it is attempting to form relationships with clothing and accessories sites in return for uploading their product catalogs.

Visitors use a tool called the Clipper, which is downloaded and saved on their toolbars, to select images and save them to Polyvore, where anyone can use them in a collage, according to the Times.

Polyvore was co-founded by ex-Yahoo! engineers Pasha Sadri, Guangwei Yuan and Jianing Hu.

Sadri told the Times:

Online retail started around digital cameras. Now, sites are using the same engines to sell shirts, but that’s not the way they should be sold. Clothing is much more visual.

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.