Building on the success of its three-year-old Pronto.com comparison shopping property, IAC (NSDQ: IACI) is launching two new sites under the Pronto brand — one geared towards fashion shoppers, the other to people in the market for home decor. IAC said earlier this year that Pronto was profitable and a standout in its emerging businesses unit; since then, it’s repeatedly referred to growth at the business in its earnings reports.
IAC says that with the launch of the new sites, ProntoHome.com and ProntoStyle.com, it’s moving away from offering a broad selection of products on one site to launching a “series of high-quality, category-focused shopping destinations.” It says the targeted sites are attractive to high-end merchants who won’t do business on traditional comparison shopping engines, which typically have lower-quality wares. Current retail partners include Crate & Barrel for ProntoHome and Nordstrom for ProntoStyle. The Pronto sites will differentiate themselves by offering the full inventory of merchants, instead of just select items or those from retail partners.
In its release, IAC notes the overall growth of online retail, and refers to research showing that fashion and home goods make up the majority of e-commerce sales. Another advantage: The shopping sites are not ad dependent and therefore provide a way for IAC to buffer its revenue.

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