Jennie, Sarah and Grace McGinn, founders of Prowlster
Following a four-week test drive back in the lead-up to Christmas, Prowlster – the online lifestyle magazine with an e-commerce twist – is back to pioneer the concept of ‘magazine commerce’.
Lifestyle magazines are full to the brim with info on new products and must-haves, and in the online world there’s no reason why these products can’t be purchased right off the page. This is the idea behind Prowlster, which fuses online content with online shopping while also leveraging social media sharing for higher conversion rates.
The concept comes from sisters Jennie, Sarah and Grace McGinn, who are also behind successful Irish style blog What Will I Wear Today? Prowlster became part of the NDRC LaunchPad accelerator programmer in September and was awarded a Digital Marketing Award in the Lift Off showcase in December.
To test the effect of positioning products for sale directly amid magazine content, the Prowlster team trialled an open beta release last December. Capitalising on the current ‘pop-up shop’ trend, Prowlster 1.0 was live for just four weeks with 12 retailers on board, including two international brands.
Having generated more than 500,000 brand views and €3,000 in sales, the sisters are pushing forward with today’s full launch of Prowlster.
On International Women’s Day, 8 March, Silicon Republic launches Women Invent Tomorrow, a year-long campaign to champion the role of women in science, technology, engineering and maths. Watch this space!
