Yahoo picks up fashion commerce site Polyvore

Polyvore's site lets users search for clothing items and create themed collections

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 2014.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 2014.

Marissa Mayer knows fashion, and she's bringing more of it to Yahoo with her latest acquisition announced Friday.

Yahoo has reached a deal to acquire Polyvore, an e-commerce site that lets you shop for "what's trending in the style community," Yahoo announced Friday. It hopes the deal will give it a place to sell more ads for retailers.

The site lets users shop for clothing and accessories, but it also has a social networking component that lets users post collections of desired items, like they might on Pinterest. The majority of Polyvore's users are women between the ages of 18 and 34, the company says.

In its announcement, Yahoo cited advertising as a key driver of the deal. Yahoo will integrate Polyvore's ads into Gemini, its native ads platform. Polyvore has more than 350 advertisers who are retailers, Yahoo said.

Native ads aim to grab more attention by taking on the appearance of editorial content or user posts.

It's the latest in a string of acquisitions for the Yahoo CEO. Mayer is known around Silicon Valley to have a penchant for high fashion, ever since Vogue ran an article about her in 2009, and a photo spread a few years later.

Yahoo has been struggling to grow its advertising business, but the company reported sales gains in its most recent quarter due to outside search partnerships.

Polyvore's website and apps will continue to operate under Yahoo, the companies said on Friday. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

Polyvore's origins are actually in Yahoo -- three former Yahoo engineers launched the site in 2007. Its team will now join Yahoo at its offices in Sunnyvale and San Francisco in California, and in New York.

Zach Miners covers social networking, search and general technology news for IDG News Service. Follow Zach on Twitter at @zachminers. Zach's e-mail address is zach_miners@idg.com

Join the newsletter!

Or

Sign up to gain exclusive access to email subscriptions, event invitations, competitions, giveaways, and much more.

Membership is free, and your security and privacy remain protected. View our privacy policy before signing up.

Error: Please check your email address.
Show Comments

Latest Videos

More Videos

More Brand Posts

What are Chris Riddell's qualifications to talk about technology? What are the awards that Chris Riddell has won? I cannot seem to find ...

Tareq

Digital disruption isn’t disruption anymore: Why it’s time to refocus your business

Read more

Enterprisetalk

Mark

CMO's top 10 martech stories for the week - 9 June

Read more

Great e-commerce article!

Vadim Frost

CMO’s State of CX Leadership 2022 report finds the CX striving to align to business outcomes

Read more

Are you searching something related to Lottery and Lottery App then Agnito Technologies can be a help for you Agnito comes out as a true ...

jackson13

The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration

Read more

Thorough testing and quality assurance are required for a bug-free Lottery Platform. I'm looking forward to dependability.

Ella Hall

The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration

Read more

Blog Posts

Marketing prowess versus the enigma of the metaverse

Flash back to the classic film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Television-obsessed Mike insists on becoming the first person to be ‘sent by Wonkavision’, dematerialising on one end, pixel by pixel, and materialising in another space. His cinematic dreams are realised thanks to rash decisions as he is shrunken down to fit the digital universe, followed by a trip to the taffy puller to return to normal size.

Liz Miller

VP, Constellation Research

Why Excellent Leadership Begins with Vertical Growth

Why is it there is no shortage of leadership development materials, yet outstanding leadership is so rare? Despite having access to so many leadership principles, tools, systems and processes, why is it so hard to develop and improve as a leader?

Michael Bunting

Author, leadership expert

More than money talks in sports sponsorship

As a nation united by sport, brands are beginning to learn money alone won’t talk without aligned values and action. If recent events with major leagues and their players have shown us anything, it’s the next generation of athletes are standing by what they believe in – and they won’t let their values be superseded by money.

Simone Waugh

Managing Director, Publicis Queensland

Sign in