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One Kings Lane Acquires Publishing Design Firm Helicopter

Wednesday 19. January 2011 - Top Online Retailer Adds Editorial Focus with Purchase of Company that Launched Domino Magazine

At a time when the lines between media and e-commerce are becoming increasingly blurred, with magazine publishers allocating enormous capital to acquire and invest in technology platforms, one leading e-commerce company has made a strategic investment that portends how the online shopping experience will become ever more editorialized.
One Kings Lane, the leading private online shopping destination for home decor, furnishings, accessories, and gifts announced today that it has acquired top publishing design firm Helicopter, which will bring the online retailer industry-leading design and content capabilities to provide shoppers magazine-like context for items as they browse. In assuming leadership for One Kings Lane’s in-house design and content teams, Helicopter will broaden the site’s scope and depth by developing content that inspires shoppers with new ideas about home decorating, interviews with leaders in the design industry, and features on everything from gift-giving to entertaining.
Helicopter, a New York-based design consultancy, has been the go-to design and content partner for top publishers including Conde Nast, Time Inc., Hachette, Hearst and The Wall Street Journal for more than 10 years. Founded by business partners Josh Liberson and Ethan Trask in 2001, Helicopter launched Domino magazine, redesigned Jane magazine and was enlisted by The Wall Street Journal to redesign WSJ magazine.
“We envision the future of e-commerce as the convergence of retail, media and technology, and our acquisition of Helicopter positions us at the forefront of the industry,” said Doug Mack, CEO, One Kings Lane. “While already tremendously successful, One Kings Lane is poised for dramatic growth as we engage our members with the depth of information they increasingly seek when making purchases of exceptional products, sight unseen. We are thrilled to be bringing on the outstanding talents of Josh, Ethan and the Helicopter team to help us lead and shape the next wave of the industry.”
Liberson added, “We are excited to take the concept we helped develop at Domino, which combined an accessible tone with a broad array of ideas-all anchored to achievable, buyable product-and take it to a whole new level as part of One Kings Lane. Consumers, inspired by the content, will be able to shop with a sense of context and feel confident in their buying decisions because they’ve been given a back story or expert advice. We are particularly excited as this vision plays directly to the strengths that we’ve spent the last decade developing on high profile assignments with some of the leading consumer brands and media companies.”
Since its launch in March 2009, One Kings Lane has quickly become the category leader. The site hosts 72-hour sales daily beginning at 8 a.m. PT. From furniture to flatware, linen to lamps, decorative accessories to art, it offers a diverse and curated assortment of high end designer merchandise at deeply discounted prices in limited quantities, obtained directly from designers and suppliers.