Jones Apparel Group's Nine West, Rachel Roy Brands Leverage New Fluid Fan Shop(TM) to Drive Exclusive Facebook Fan Shopping Experiences

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital shopping pioneer Fluid, Inc. today announced Nine West as the second customer deploying Fluid Fan Shop™, the new Facebook shopping component of Fluid Social, the industry's leading social shopping platform. Fan Shop embeds unique and highly branded fans-only shopping experiences directly into a tab on a retailer's Facebook fan page. Nine West is the second Jones Apparel Group (NYSE: JNY) brand to deploy Fan Shop, following closely on the heels of phenomenal results from a three day pop-up store for Rachel Roy, a division of Jones Apparel. In the first six hours of the store, the brand's Facebook-exclusive product sold out. In the first 24 hours, the brand obtained 1.5 new Facebook fans each minute, and the event returned a total fan base increase of 35 percent.

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Rachel Roy chose Fan Shop to preview a limited edition, limited quantity jewelry collection for Facebook fans in an exclusive pop-up store launched February 9. "Fan Shop demonstrates Fluid's thought leadership in converging social media and ecommerce to create even more compelling shopping experiences," said Stacy Lastrina, chief marketing officer, Jones Apparel Group. "The solution delivered an immediate impact on our brand and our consumers' engagement that surpassed our expectations."

Nine West also chose Fan Shop to launch a fans-only "lookbook" today on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ninewest) to attract new fans and deepen the relationship with existing ones by offering exclusive content and a private brand-appropriate shopping experience. Fans also get a Facebook-exclusive 15 percent discount through February 28. Featuring six styles created by Fred Allard, the Spring 2010 lookbook allows shoppers to explore featured products and video content from within a shopping environment that feels more like a fashion magazine than an ecommerce site. The experience is socially enabled, allowing fans to "Like" and "Share" both products and looks from a design that is uniquely branded to Nine West.

Unlike first generation tools that simply dump a retailer's catalog into a tab on Facebook, Fluid built Fan Shop to create engaging social merchandising experiences that increase a brand's fan base while driving transactions. "Few retailers are delivering premium Facebook shopping that not only rewards fans but pulls them into a deeper relationship with the brand," says Andy Lloyd, CEO of Fluid, Inc. "Slapping a store on Facebook doesn't deliver -- Fan Shop enables immersive brand experiences that fully integrate shopping as well as the shopper's wider social network."

Fans can fill their shopping carts while exploring rich editorial content, all without leaving Facebook. Fan Shop fuses brand, commerce and community by allowing shoppers to "Like" and "Share" any content while shopping. Critically important, Fluid's expertise in creating differentiated shopping experiences allows retailers to develop an experience that is unique to their brand, easy to maintain and fast to implement. Fan Shop has the flexibility to be implemented as a lookbook featuring product ensembles or to merchandise individual products.

Fluid Social is a scalable hosted service available for a monthly fee. For more information on Fluid Social, please visit www.fluid.com/products/fluid_social.  Fluid is a Facebook Preferred Developer Consultant, a program created by Facebook to match brands, celebrities, companies and organizations with the best resources available to build flagship applications, and employ best practices on the Facebook Platform.

About Fluid, Inc.

Fluid creates engaging digital shopping experiences that drive conversion, customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Founded in 1990, Fluid has a customer list that includes major online retailers such as Sears, Reebok, Vans, Diapers.com, and The North Face, among others. More information about Fluid is available at www.fluid.com.

About Jones Apparel Group, Inc.

Jones Apparel Group, Inc. (www.jonesapparel.com) is a leading designer, marketer and wholesaler of branded apparel, footwear and accessories. The Company also markets directly to consumers through its chain of specialty retail and value-based stores and through its e-commerce web sites. The Company's nationally recognized brands include Jones New York, Nine West, Anne Klein, Gloria Vanderbilt, Kasper, Bandolino, Easy Spirit, Evan-Picone, l.e.i., Energie, Enzo Angiolini, Joan & David, Mootsies Tootsies, Sam & Libby, Napier, Judith Jack, Albert Nipon and Le Suit. The Company also markets costume jewelry under the Givenchy brand licensed from Givenchy Corporation, women's footwear under the Dockers(r) and Dockers(r) Women brands and infants', toddlers' and boys' footwear (excluding girls' footwear) under the Dockers(r) and Dockers(r) Premium brands, licensed from Levi Strauss & Co., apparel and accessories under the Rachel Roy brand licensed from Rachel Roy IP Company, LLC, and Jessica Simpson jeanswear licensed from VCJS, LLC. Each brand is differentiated by its own distinctive styling, pricing strategy, distribution channel and target consumer. The Company contracts for the manufacture of its products through a worldwide network of quality manufacturers. The Company has capitalized on its nationally known brand names by entering into various licenses for several of its trademarks, including Jones New York, Anne Klein New York, Nine West, Gloria Vanderbilt, l.e.i. and Evan-Picone, with select manufacturers of women's and men's products which the Company does not manufacture. For more than 30 years, the Company has built a reputation for excellence in product quality and value, and in operational execution.

SOURCE Jones Apparel Group