House of Fraser to let brands bid for space on website

Department store House of Fraser is partnering with e-commerce product placement platform Elevaate to allow brands to bid for digital shelf positioning on its website.

An initial trial allowed a select number of partner brands to bid to feature their products on the House of Fraser website, and the department store was impressed with the successful test period that it will now offer the platform to all of its brand partners.

"Using the Elevaate cloud platform provides our brand partners with the flexibility to bid for digital shelf position in real-time, which means key products can be promoted online to complement traditional in-store displays,” explains Andy Harding, chief customer officer at House of Fraser. "The platform will offer the agility our brand partners need to help them increase sales for specific products or collections.”

Elevaate chief executive officer Simon Harrow added: “We’re seeing a number of the more progressive retailers wanting to work with Elevaate because they recognise the need for new, more efficient ways to capitalise on the growing revenue impact of online sales to their business.

“House of Fraser is choosing Elevaate because it sees the revenue potential of brands having the agility to manage the performance of their products online and invest in real-time.”

The move comes as the department store reported a positive Christmas trading period, with like-for-like sale increasing by 5.3 percent year-on-year in the six weeks to January 2, 2016. Key sales periods included total sales on Black Friday increasing by 10 percent on 2014, and in the week leading up to Christmas Day like-for-like sales grew 6 percent in addition to 68 percent online growth.

Image: House of Fraser website