I love this Lagerhaus case study from Creativity Online, where the interior design retailer engaged bloggers to curate and host stores on their blogs. (details below)

Lagerhaus provided the bloggers with an easy-to-use store widget and gave them the agency to market their ewares however they liked.

What began as a temporary campaign activity around the launch of an ecommerce site has become a permanent sales channel for Lagerhaus, as well as a boon for their Facebook Fan growth and Page engagement rate. It’s also a great example of truly mutually beneficial blogger outreach – the brand gains devoted audiences and additional sales venues and the blogger receives a genuine value add for readers which could prompt prolonged engagement and site visits.

Reminded me of a site I recently stumbled upon called OpenSky, which sells items such as clothing, accessories, homewares and some food, as curated by a host of ‘celebrities.’

You ‘Follow’ a celeb selection of your choosing, from chefs who’ve featured on Entourage to vegan cookbook author/former A-Listers to fashion bloglebrities, who update you on their pick of online goodies which you can then purchase with a couple of clicks.

Admittedly, possibly because it is an American site, I have no idea who most of these people are, which renders the site far less useful that it should be. But if an Aussie version launched, getting the heads up from Margaret Pomeranz re an earring sale from her favourite jeweller, or the DL from Lee Lin Chin on top secret shoe shops is something that would definitely appeal.

Lagerhaus Case Study: Bloggers as retail channel.

Swedish interior design retailer Lagerhaus targeted six leading interior design bloggers to create buzz around the launch of its online store, and increase its number of Facebook fans in a campaign by Prime.

The retailer invited the bloggers to create their own ‘pop up’ stores, giving them access to a blog store widget to make it easy. The bloggers could customize their shop with their favorite products and embed it on their blog, thereby creating so-called ‘Blog-Up Stores’. Bloggers could market the stores however they want, and could invite their readers along to meet them in person at the launch of the online store. As a result of the campaign, the brand’s Facebook fans increased by 226%, interactions grew by 360% and the blog stores have become permanent distribution channels for the brand.