JewelMint.com Evangelizes Push Shopping E-Commerce Model

The past few years have been filled with many new and innovative methods for selling online beyond the traditional online store, in efforts to compete, create a unique experience, and keep profits strong despite economic setbacks. Some successful ecommerce models have included group buying, penny auctions, and private sample sales.  Some models that have yet to prove themselves as a success include co-creation (where consumers work with the merchant to create the final product) and a few niche social selling models.  Now, “push shopping” is becoming the new ecommerce buzz word as big Hollywood stars like Kate Bosworth and Kim Kardashian lead the way into this newest form of selling online.

One of the first online stores to take to the headlines for the push shopping trend was Kim Kardashian’s ShoeDazzle, which features a variety of fashion accessories like handbags, shoes, and jewelry. Now a new online store has hit the scene, called JewelMint, which features designs by Kate Bosworth and Cher Coulter.  The site is owned by the men behind BeachMint which include serial tech entrepreneur, Diego Berdakin, and MySpace Co-Founder, Josh Berman.

JewelMint.com uses a classic push shopping model and sets prices at $29.99 per month.  For those that do not know what push shopping is, it is kind of like BMG Music meets a private sample sale site.  The idea is fairly simple: First-time visitors of JewelMint are taken through a quick questionnaire that determines their fashion profile.  Upon completing the questionnaire, visitors then must put in their credit card information.  Next, a series of jewelry options that are targeted to their fashion profile appear.  If they choose to buy one, their credit card is charged and they become a monthly member.  Every piece of jewelry on JewelMint costs $29.99, which is the same as the monthly membership cost.  Each month, users are sent a personalized catalog of products based on their fashion profile.  The $29.99 per month gives them 1 credit towards a piece of jewelry from this personalized catalog, allowing them to get one piece of jewelry each month.  Unfortunately, customers are not allowed to browse the full product catalog and always must choose from the personalized product catalog instead.  If a customer does not want a piece of jewelry that month, they will not be charged the $29.99 for the month.  In other words, products are pushed to the customer and purchasing a product becomes more commonplace because customers are already committing to a $29.99 charge on their credit card.

Only time will tell if this new ecommerce model will take off, but with Hollywood star power behind it, investors are very optimistic.  Clearly, this will be an ecommerce trend worth keeping an eye on in 2011.