FT overhauling its luxury and lifestyle supplement

The Financial Times’ luxury and lifestyle supplement is relaunching Wednesday with a redesign that focuses on improved speed, aesthetics and an e-commerce tool, writes Lucinda Southern of Digiday.

Southern writes, “During research for the redesign, which has taken a year, one survey found that 87 percent of readers have bought products or services they found on How To Spend It. ‘People use it as a tool to book and buy,’ said Chris Nardi, global luxury advertising director at the FT. ‘The fact it’s useful to the reader came through strongly. This made us reconsider columns that didn’t have actionable next steps.’

“Now each article — written by its editorial team of 10 and wider network of contributors — has a ‘Where to find it’ box, linking out to where readers can purchase the item. The gift guide, which features around 800 products chosen by the editorial team and links out to where readers can purchase the item, has been given much more prominence too. Now, it’s the first tab on the navigation bar, rather than the last tab, and featured on every section page.

“Once in the gift guide, which shows a grid of high-end items like an Alessi teapot, Alberta Ferretti earrings or an Alex McCarthy vase, people can click on the the particular gift to expand for a better view and for more information. Previously, clicking on the gift would take readers to another page.”

Read more here.