Globe and Mail Spotlights Shop the Block

“It gets me out shopping,” says Tara Fingold, a 35-year-old mother of two who figures she has saved $150 in the two months since she got the card. The interior designer has picked up everything from toys at Oink Oink to children's clothing at Gretchen & Co. and a fall wardrobe at Bella. She recently bought a $235 James Pierce shirt at Bella, getting a 10-per-cent markdown with her card

Two stylists are enthusing about how budget-conscious consumers can save money by recycling their summer wardrobe for fall.

A long-sleeved white Mexx shirt works underneath a lightweight sleeveless cotton shift, refashioned for an autumn look with tights from Benetton, a purple print Mexx scarf, grey Rudsak booties and gold handbag and bracelet from Liz Claiborne.

“We don't necessarily have to break the bank, and we can reuse pieces we already have,” Afiya Francisco advises her audience.

Another reality television show? Not exactly. The three-minute episode, which will go online Friday, is part of a series called Style Agents that the Vaughan Mills Shopping Centre is using to tout its fashion offerings. The Web campaign appears on StyleAgents.ca, Twitter and YouTube feeds and in podcasts and blogs.

“It's a wonderful opportunity to shine when other marketers are pulling back,” says Jamie MacLean, marketing director for the mall, a half-hour drive north of Toronto.

“It stimulated a lot of activity. … We've been up [in sales] pretty consistently even in a time when flat is the new up.”

From Web TV to social networking to shop-local initiatives, purveyors of fashion are finding creative ways to court shopping-wary consumers in the economic downturn. On Thursday, 700 stores in the United States and 11 other countries kept their doors open until 11 p.m. for the first “Fashion's Night Out” event, tied to the launch of New York Fashion Week and co-sponsored by Vogue magazine.

While Canada wasn't officially part of the fashionable pep rally, the Bay marked the night by extending its hours at four stores until 10 p.m. and organized designer appearances and other special events at seven of its key outlets.

Tonight in Toronto, meanwhile, Holt Renfrew is doing its own fashion outreach, hosting a Toronto International Film Festival party to screen two two-minute fall-fashion videos before posting them on its website and Facebook page.

There's an urgency to making a splash now. Many retailers are suffering through one of their toughest years in decades, with some notable names, such as Toronto's Hazel, Finishing Touches and Zola Shoes, going under.

In June alone, Canadian clothing retail sales dipped 5 per cent from a year earlier, according to Statistics Canada; in the same month, sales at Canadian malls (excluding department stores) fell almost 4 per cent from the previous year, the International Council of Shopping Centres reports.“Malls need to do more; all retailers need to do more,” says retail-real estate consultant Hermann Kircher of Kircher Research Associates. “In order to excel, you have to come up with something that wasn't done before – something that is memorable.”

One Toronto businesswoman has taken a local approach to woo consumers. Lauren Wise, a human-resources expert, was becoming alarmed at the growing number of shops going out of business in her North Toronto neighbourhood. She figured one way to get people into stores again was to offer a financial incentive.

In June, she introduced the “Shop the Block” discount card that, for an annual $65 fee, offers consumers up to 20 per cent off their purchases at participating stores, restaurants and other services. So far, 300 consumers have signed up for the card; 100 merchants are on board, she says.

“It gets me out shopping,” says Tara Fingold, a 35-year-old mother of two who figures she has saved $150 in the two months since she got the card. The interior designer has picked up everything from toys at Oink Oink to children's clothing at Gretchen & Co. and a fall wardrobe at Bella.

She recently bought a $235 James Pierce shirt at Bella, getting a 10-per-cent markdown with her card. “I could have bought it at Holt's, but at Holt's it would have been regular price.”

“It just helps if it's a little less guilt when something is a little bit cheaper,” adds Penny Sherman, a 35-year-old cardholder who is a teacher and mother of two. She and Fingold both say they have scaled back their spending on non-necessities by 20 per cent or more from a year ago, but the card motivates them to head to local shops.

Wise says that she would eventually like to go cross-Canada and plans to expand to other Toronto neighbourhoods by early next year through ShopTheBlock.ca.

A growing number of businesses are turning to the Web. Vaughan Mills launched its first online episode of Style Agents in late May when the mall, while managing to make sales gains in the recession, started to see a dip in its traffic in the unseasonably cool weather. By this week, four segments had got more than 61,000 online views, including 35,000-plus on YouTube, says Mark Campbell, account director at VMG Cinematic, which produced the video.

YouTube is alluring because 48 per cent of its users are female and 34 per cent are “really into” clothing fashions, visiting the site a few days a week, according to data compiled by VMG.

“It's a tactic to support our ultimate strategy to better connect with that market,” the mall's MacLean says. “To have access to a platform where we can spread our brand on an international basis is in our best interest.”

Calgary-area shopping centre CrossIron Mills set out to spread the word about its opening last month with a virtual campaign aimed at appealing to Albertans' pride in their province, marketing director Aleisha Vermeulen says.

As the first mall to launch since the financial crisis took root last fall – and Alberta's first new enclosed shopping space in 20 years – it needed to raise awareness. Its micro site, BeyondTheOrdinary.ca, created a social-networking opportunity by inviting consumers to post photographs of their personal Alberta moments. It got about 300 responses in its first five weeks, and Vermeulen credits the campaign with helping bring 250,000 people to the centre in its first five days. Even better, stores reported sales exceeding their forecasts.

The online contest also allowed the company to collect information on contestants so it could keep in touch with them. Now, it wants to use the photos in other marketing initiatives. “We kind of tapped into that notion of pride of place, using that as a platform to get people aware of us,” Vermeulen says.

But whether online or offline, marketers are often chasing an affluent consumer in a bid to get her to loosen her purse strings. The Shop the Block program sends its e-mails to households with incomes of $150,000 or more, Wise says. Soon she'll (snail) mail promotions to 3,000 North Toronto homes.

At Vaughan Mills, almost 35 per cent of the shoppers have an average household income of around $117,000 and aspire to shop for luxury goods in Yorkville, MacLean says. But they're also frugalistas who appreciate the deals at the mall's outlet stores, which include Lacoste, Hugo Boss and Holt Renfrew Last Call.

Other new initiatives are just plain common sense. Vaughan Mills started a free shuttle service in May from Union Station in downtown Toronto. It has been running at 70 per cent capacity, beating the mall's expectation of operating half-full buses, MacLean says.

And a few are already setting the stage for the crucial holiday selling season. Park Royal shopping centre in tony West Vancouver is already running a feel-good Christmas video on its website under the title “Yule love it.”

“It's a tough time for fashion now,” marketing director Nancy Small says. “People want to have interesting and light things to look at online.”