Dive Brief:

• Bloomingdale's and Cotton Incorporated rolled out an interactive 60-second video fashion show where viewers can click to browse and buy featured outfits and share directly on social media, according to a press release. The interactive video went up on fashion site Who What Wear on Sept. 7 and shoppers can select from more than 80 items. 
• The shoppable video, hosted by celebrity Kristin Cavallari, aims to reach millennials and Gen Z, a group Kim Kitchings, senior vice president of consumer marketing at Cotton Inc., described in the release as "Generation App."
• The virtual runway features young models walking a catwalk wearing various cotton-based items that can be found online and in Bloomingdale's stores. Clicking on the video opens a page highlighting that model's outfit with a call-to-action to "Tap Image To Shop The Look." Doing so enables users to see the outfit in more detail, find product details, share to social media and purchase.

Dive Insight:

The effort leverages the interest in the runway experience during the fall edition of New York Fashion Week, which runs through Sept. 13, as well as the surge in fashion-related marketing during the annual gathering of designers. Taking a joint approach, Bloomingdale's and Cotton Inc. are hoping to engage millennials and Gen Z via an innovative way to present clothes in what is essentially a 60-second interactive ad on a popular fashin site as well as on a dedicated microsite. The e-commerce element is fairly simple, and the user experience is interactive, engaging and seamless, particularly when someone wants to make a quick purchase of a complete look and share it online with friends.

To meet the needs of millennials and Gen Z,  the shoppable video merges a unique digital experience with e-commerce in a quick mobile video medium those groups are accustomed to. More shoppers are avoiding malls as they increasingly buy online, so it's logical that retailers like Bloomingdale's are beefing up their mobile presence, especially with younger consumers who like to browse on the go and share their clothing styles on social media.

Like many retailers, Bloomingdale's is facing a rapidly changing marketplace as online experiences are outpacing that of in-store, leading to many closures of brick-and-mortar stores. Creating effective online experiences like this one with partner Cotton Inc. is just one example of ways retailers are trying to appeal to these younger consumers with rapidly growing buying power.

Bloomingdale's isn't the only retailer to take to mobile media to lure young shoppers in recent months. Earlier this summer, Nordstrom turned to Snapchat, which reels in 166 million users a day, for branded geofilters and lenses featuring sale items to add a distinctively digital element to its annual anniversary sale, as well as a "Scan + Shop" feature for customers to add items from the print catalog to their Nordstrom app via a smartphone camera.