How often do we see something on Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest and want to buy? I personally had a number of times when I wanted to buy something nice but couldn't do it easily and gave up. Entrepreneur and investor David Tisch has spent a year and a half building a startup that is betting that mobile shopping would be easy.
“People love social media, but when brands come in, it gets awkward,” Tisch says. “We think that the best shopping experience is not user-generated content and brands then jumping in, but how to capture that feeling of walking 5th Avenue or your favorite mall.”
The new Spring app connects to the company’s own back-end system like Shopify and Magento and takes a cut “much less” than the 8-12% typically for affiliate fees. Offer free shipping and that fee gets cut in half, and Spring takes a smaller cut on exclusives, too.
Every item on the app has to be for immediate sale. You can browse for fun, but if Spring’s working, you’ll actually act on what you see. That means it’s critical to be able to check something out quickly and move on. Dissatisfied with that process, Tisch got his engineers to add a feature late in development: a Tinder-like swipe-down function that immediately takes you out of a product and back to the main group. It’s quick and impulsive to look at in item and move on, but you’re always a touch from buying.
That said, Spring looks a lot like Instagram but slicked-up. Tisch says he doesn’t want the app to be a repository for discount deals or clearance items–the hope is for pushing new launches and exclusives. Eventually, the app will have personal customization within the brands you follow as Spring learns what you like.
More important than those features will be the group of brands committed to the app. Spring’s name is inspired by the diversity of stores on Spring Street in New York’s SoHo neighborhood, and its launched with 100 brands that run the gamut from Alice + Olivia to Carolina Herrera, Everlane and Citizens of Humanity. Stalwarts like Hugo Boss , Levi’s and Theory are on board, as well as trendier companies like Rag & Bone and Warby Parker. Another 350 are in the pipeline; for some, it’s their first way to sell direct.
As it currently stands, Spring has a few issues:
- First is the infrequency of content flowing through the app
- They are missing the kind of community that Instagram has attracted, a lot of which stems from people and brands sharing a much wider range of content than product imagery alone
- The seasonal schedule on which most designers operate. Even with the rise of pre-collections, there is going to be downtime and Spring will have to work hard to keep its stream fluid during the off-seasons
Finally, an immense challenge for Spring: convincing brands that their best shot is to let Spring control their customers’ shopping experience on mobile, which is undoubtedly the future of e-commerce. For brands to cede this kind of control to Spring seems like a huge leap of faith, especially in an industry as creative and fast-paced as fashion.
As a result, perhaps brands will invest more seriously in their own e-commerce initiatives for mobile. This will generate some healthy competition for Spring, which will keep both parties on their toes.
Source: http://www.businessoffashion.com/2014/09/op-ed-sizing-spring-instagram-like-shopping-app.html; http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2014/08/14/how-david-tischs-new-app-spring-looks-to-crack-mobile-shopping/
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