imagePolo Ralph Lauren, the fashion purveyor of all things preppy, will be the first among luxury retailers to launch a mobile e-commerce site. Advertising SVP David Lauren and son of Ralph told Reuters that it was “important” for Polo as a fashion company to “get ahead” of the trends, with this one coming from Asia to the U.S. Lauren struck a curiously nonchalant tone about what the move was supposed to accomplish and who it was aimed at: “This is about someone who’s interested in our brand and interested in technology, and wherever the two meet, that’s what’s appropriate.”
Perhaps the more interesting experiment is Polo’s use of mobile codes, which will be used to drive customers to Ralph Lauren’s mobile web site. The company is putting the 2D barcodes in print ads, mailings, and store windows along with its sponsorship of the forthcoming US Open tennis tournament. The downside is that consumers will have to download software to scan the codes on their camera phones (though Lauren said mobiles with pre-installed bar code readers should hit the market within a year). But once they do this, they will be able to scan the codes, which will then take them to Ralph Lauren’s web site, where they can buy clothes, watch U.S. Open videos and read other content. No word on how much this experiment is costing them. More on Ralph Lauren’s barcode efforts at their site.
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