Dwell Media Steps Up to Online Store

In one of the savvier brand extensions of 2013, Dwell Media today launched an online store.

It’s now offering more than 1,000 uber-modern items from marketing partners like Design Within Reach, Williams-Sonoma and Wallpaper to its legendarily loyal customer base.

“We want them to know that this is the place to buy wonderful goods – that we’re curating a fine collection of goods from around the world,” says Michela O’Connor Abrams, president of Dwell Media. “And we want to raise the bar for everyone to sell with us.”

Its six-member retail team is headed up by Brandon Huff, former head of global commerce at Yahoo! An updated app, fully enabled for ecommerce will soon follow, as will the entry of Dwell magazine on the Apple newsstand. The store will be fully integrated with Dwell’s social channels, so that users can share, save, like, pin and tweet every featured item.

“This is content in a contextual environment – a destination, not just a place to get a discount,” she says. “It’s content, experience and engagement.”

The company has an established rapport with a community of people who look to its magazine, website and special events for inspiration and ideas. The new store is an opportunity to explore that rapport even further

“We want to know everything about them – what Scotch they drink, which running shoes they wear, the restaurants they choose to eat in, and the kind of homes they buy,” she says.

Given all that, could a bricks and mortar Dwell environment possibly be far behind?

In a word, yes.

“I think you’ll see physical stores pop up in the U.S. in 2014,” she says.

The only question now is: Where?

For more information, go to http://store.dwell.com/

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