Blog - Portable Studio

Portable Launches Fashion Retail Platform In The United States

2010-07-30T02:37:20Z

Portable, the New York based digital media company, has officially launched its fashion platform Portable Shops into the United States.

The platform, which is available at www.portableshops.com, is designed specifically to allow fashion designers, boutiques and retailers to grow their brands online. Designers can build their own e-commerce experience and completely customize the look and feel to suit their brand. Pricing starts at $49.95 per month with transaction fees and scales up to larger plans with greater features and reduced fees to cater for more established fashion businesses.

“We think the future of fashion is in digital and online experiences,” says Andrew Apostola, the company’s New York based creative director.

Each store comes with pre-designed functionality such as look-book profiles, press galleries, stockist lists and online store items that take into account the uniqueness of fashion online. More advanced stores allow designers to sell their entire collection through Facebook, check and update stock through their mobile phone and run targeted sales and discount campaigns. A range of free templates are also available for emerging designers who can’t afford the initial costs of hiring a web designer but need to engage with their online audience.

“Traditionally fashion brands have really struggled to make the jump to digital. Now we are finding that many brands that have launched online have a hard time keeping up with new technology as it changes. We wanted to create something that could take away all of the technology issues that come with running a fashion brand or boutique,” says Apostola.

Menswear label Loden Dager, who were recently short listed for the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), are the first designers in the United States to use the platform. They join New York based up-and-coming label Arnsdorf and over fifty other designers who have been using the platform since it was made available to Australian and New Zealand designers in November. Other designers include Josh Goot, Therese Rawsthorne, Candela, Sara Phillips, Carly Hunter, Lonely Hearts Club and Friend of Mine to name a few.

The company has seen the product grow by roughly 10 designers per month in recent months and is hoping the launch into the United States will see that double in coming months. It recently unveiled a Facebook Shopping Application that allows customers to purchase items through Facebook and an API for developers and web designers.

All plans come with a 30-day free trial. Plans range from $49.95 per month with transaction fees to $595.00 per month with no fees.

For more information please see www.portableshops.com

Examples

Some example of stores that have either been fully customized or the use templates can be found at the following addresses:

lodendager.com
arnsdorf.com.au
joshgoot.com
gailsorronda.com
thereserawsthorne.com
lonelyheartslabel.com
saraphillips.com.au
friendofmine.com.au
candelanyc.com
maythelabel.com
carly-hunter.com

Further Comments

Please contact Andrew Apostola on andrew@portable.tv or 646 416 173 for US base enquiries. For all other enquiries please contact Simon Goodrich on simon@portable.tv or +613 9417 0571.

For further information and high res images please contact Kate Colquhoun on kate@portable.tv +613 9417 0571 or +61 418 112 479.

Portable Shops get written up on Fashion Exposed Online

2010-07-16T08:28:45Z

Portable Shops write up in leading Australian online fashion blog – Fashion Exposed Online. Check it out there.

Facebook Sales on Portable Shops makes front page of RagTrader

2010-07-13T19:37:04Z

Our new version of Portable Shops, which powers over 50 stores for designers in Australia, made front page of the preeminent trade magazine today, for our new Facebook sales tool. Check it out.

Read the article here.

The Age shouts out to all the (Portable) people in Manhattan

2010-07-12T09:07:31Z

A great article by Dewi Cooke on New York as well as a bit of an update from Andrew. Appeared in the A2 Section of The Age over the weekend.

Find the article here

New Facebook Shopping Application Unveiled

2010-07-09T06:15:07Z

This week we are releasing our new Facebook Shopping application as part of our fashion platform Portable Shops. The application allows fashion designers and boutiques to sell their entire collections through their Facebook fan or profile pages, effectively allowing businesses to have their own online store through Facebook.

We’re out promoting it to the world at the moment, here’s some grabs from the press release:

Portable’s creative director Andrew Apostola, who’s currently in New York to launch the product sees the release as part of a growing trend of online shoppers using Facebook to research brands and clothing.

“Over the past six months we were noticing that close to 70% of purchases were being made by customers who had linked from Facebook.”

“Rather than distracting users, we decided to allow people to buy from where they spend most of the time: on Facebook”.

People can sign up to use the application and install it into their profile page or fan page. The company charges a monthly fee to use the application along with other services The Facebook Application is part of Portable Shops, an online platform that allows fashion designers and boutiques to sell online. Since launching in November 2009, the company now powers the online stores of over 40 labels including Arnsdorf, TV, Sara Phillips, Karla Spetic, Therese Rawsthorne and Carly Hunter. Josh Goot and Akira will both be launching their online stores using Portable Shops over the next month.

The platform will be launching in the United States in July and has already signed on a range of designers including menswear designer Loden Dager.

You can view an example of the Facebook application in use on Arnsdorf’s fan page.

For more information get in touch with Kate Colquhoun at +61 39417 0571 or email kate@portable.tv

Andrew Gaze and the wonders of social networking

2010-06-30T14:08:42Z

Check out this story that went to air recently on Channel 7 program, Guide to the Good Life. I get to talk technology with Australian Mr. Basketball, Andrew Gaze. My house is used as the set. Cool!

Portable gets a nice write up in the SMH and The Age

2010-06-30T14:08:02Z

Part of a story written by Brad Howarth about Australian companies setting up in New York. Good photo of Andrew! Check it here.

Hanging out at Internet Week in New York

2010-06-30T14:06:04Z

Andrew and I had the pleasure of being down for Internet Week and the Webby Awards last week. As ambassador for the Australia I got put up at The Standard and all in all had a rad time. In fact it was off the charts. We hanged out with the dudes who invented Foursquare, Twitter, Chat Roulette. Check out some of the shots.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, he invented the World Wide Web.

The dude invented Chat Roulette. He is 17 and from Russia

I also did a live cross for Triple J, Australian national broadcaster on the Awards. Check it out here. .