Flipboard, known for its beautiful “social magazine” on tablets and phones, has just announced the launch of its first in-magazine store on both iOS and Android, in partnership with Levis. This is Flipboard’s first step into ecommerce, and given the popularity of the service, adding a shopping layer could leave a massive impact on the company’s future.
Flipboard calls this move a “social catalog,” and it’s especially telling given how monotonous online shopping has become, where long pages of visually-uninteresting grids are standard. Additionally, it looks like Flipboard has found an extremely easy and relevant way to display ads to users…that aren’t really ads at all.
Meet the first shoppable clothing catalog on Flipboard, featuring the new collection from @levis: flpbd.it/yE1HT
— Flipboard (@Flipboard) September 7, 2012
You might flip through catalogs at home and shop online. But today, those two experiences combine into one: Meet “The New Levi’s Collection” section, the first shoppable clothing catalog on Flipboard
Levis’ Flipboard store features is latest clothing collection, but also what Flipboard calls “Catalog 2.0,” which includes “Instagram shots, articles curated by the Levi’s team, videos and an insider’s view of life at Levi’s.” The odds are, Levis is only going to be the first of countless brands to take part in this new initiative.
To see the ecommerce experience in action, Flipboard users will need to head to the Style category in the Content Guide.
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