New York City-based brokerage The Corcoran Group has unveiled an agent-curated collection of smart and stylish home accessories available to purchase through the first real estate partnership with Amazon.com’s associate affiliate program.
In a Monday blog post, the Realogy-owned firm outlined the collaborative role that real estate agents played in its homebuying customer experience. Corcoran’s agents’ “advice to homebuyers, whether they’re discussing down payments or deadbolt locks, is almost always worth heeding,” the post reads.
As part of Amazon’s associates program, a percentage of the sales through the online storefront may go to Corcoran. Corcoran’s Chief Marketing Officer Christina Panos told Inman in a phone interview that Amazon had reached out to the brokerage in the spring to launch the first collaboration in the real estate space for the online retail colossus.
“We were thrilled to work with them,” Panos said. “And, you know, who better to try out something like this than with Amazon?”
Included are categories like “For the chef,” “New home essentials” and the timely “Fall favorites,” where high-end products are described as eco-friendly, smart or hand-spun. For the autumn season, Corcoran agents have highlighted cozy fashion from Peach Couture, Zwilling glass coffee mugs and, of course, a can of pumpkin puree for the kitchen.
Under the “Smart home” heading, there are recommendations for robot vacuums from Roomba, Alphabet’s Nest thermostats, remote-controlled door locks from Schlage and August as well as Amazon’s Echo line of smart speakers to make it all work with voice commands.
According to Panos, Corcoran’s agents’ ability to make these recommendations comes through having sold hundreds of thousands of homes and apartments over the years. “I think that, at this point, they have a good handle on suggestions of what people need,” she said.
“It’s important for us to make it clear to the people who choose to work with us that the relationship goes beyond the closing,” Panos said. She went on to say that continuing the dialogue and helping people settle into their new homes is a priority for the brokerage.
Panos added that they will be updating the list on an ongoing basis and the group plans on using data analytics it now has access to offer the best and most relevant selection of products.
Amazon has taken an increasing interest in the home accessory market, with just this year seeing an acquisition of smart doorbell creator Ring in February and a partnership with homebuilder Lennar to construct a fully equipped property a drive outside of Atlanta.
This isn’t the first time Corcoran has embraced innovative digital marketing techniques either. In April, the firm rolled out animated Instagram Stories “stickers” for users of the picture-sharing social network to augment their video recordings.
This was to bolster Corcoran’s branding strength, as well as to inject something different and unique into its social feeds, according to Corcoran’s digital marketing team.
