Abstract
Aim – During times of financial hardship, e-commerce undertakings often employ creative strategies to engage customers in novel ways in order to survive. In this paper, we explore the concept of lifestyle commerce to assist in this endeavour, also identifying core role players and components that differentiate the underlying business model from traditional e-commerce. Findings – Lifestyle commerce requires inspiration; inspiration requires content; content requires community. The real value of lifestyle commerce thus lies in its interconnected, communities of users who form part of an engaged customer network. Conclusions – With lifestyle commerce, one should take care of the community, and the business will take care of itself. This arguably emergent property of lifestyle commerce is a core aspect to take into consideration in future online lifestyle commerce undertakings and evidently also, their acquisition. The aim of lifestyle commerce is thus to grow an engaged customer network, as opposed to simply building a static customer base.