Rebecca Minkoff launches 'connected' bags

Rebecca Minkoff is always on the cutting edge. She has long been known for her amazing bags, and now, she’s incorporated technology into them with the “Always On” line, coming out in Spring 2017.

Rebecca doesn’t do smart shopping experiences, 3D fashion shows, and connected handbags just to be trendy. As she says, “Tech for tech’s sake is something that’s pretty and flashy and looks cool,” she said. “Our approach is identifying the consumer’s pain points and solving a problem.”

Just like her smart fitting rooms that premiered at her flagship store in Soho in 2014, where screens on mirrors around the store and in fitting rooms made the shopping experience better. Walking around the store, you could use the screen to ask for a coffee or champagne, and in the fitting room, a screen on the mirror uses RFID tags recognize each item, which you use to pull up product screens that show your item styled with different looks, as well as other available sizes and colors of that piece. This technology tripled their expected sales, and made customers stay longer and buy more.

Now, she has integrated technology into a line of handbags! Her Always On line of bags is part of a partnership with Avery Dennison and the Evrything platform. It follows their 2016 announcement of their #BornDigital concept, which plans to have 10 billion items of clothing and accessories digitized over the next three years.

Rebecca Minkoff does not play around when it comes to smart handbags. It’s not just this line, she has said that all of her bags will be smart by Summer 2017. I cannot wait to get my hands on one!

Each bag will put the customer in a loyalty program, have exclusive offers, access to e-commerce services, private styling sessions, style recommendations, video content and an invitation to Minkoff’s next fashion show.

Minkoff’s target audience is the millennial woman. As she told Forbes in February 2016, “I am the only millennial designer of the same age and sex as her consumer.” She goes after tech-savvy women who are looking for a whole new level of instant gratification.

After seeing Rebecca Minkoff’s amazing (REAL WOMAN) show at The Grove on February 4th, you can bet I will be smart with my new Minkoff Always On bag ASAP!