As home shopping network QVC increasingly goes digital, it's banking on social commerce to help drive growth.…
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Fashism, an Ashton Kutcher-backed social fashion startup, shuts down
Fashism, a four-year-old New York startup that gave fashion enthusiasts an online community for sharing styles, is closing down at the end of the month.…
Read MoreChirpify raises more funding to bring Series A to $6 million for in-stream social payments
Chirpify, the company that allows for in-stream purchases on social networks like Twitter and Facebook, plans to announce that it’s added additional…
Read MorePinterest rival The Fancy gets $53 million from Will Smith, American Express; valued at $600 million
The New York startup scene keeps booming and the latest boost is coming from social commerce company, The Fancy, that is said to have raised $53 million in new funds and is valued at a whopping $600 million.…
Read MoreWho will fix Groupon’s strategy?
Groupon should have been a marketing services company. Is it too late?…
Read MoreSocial commerce site Polyvore, now cash flow positive, launches mobile app
Style and social commerce platform Polyvore on Tuesday announced that it had launched a free mobile app for the iPhone that enables users to assemble and share personal style collections, as well as browse and purchase items.…
Read MoreHoliday shopping raises social commerce questions
Mobile’s impact on e-commerce appears marginal but growing, but social commerce remains in serious flux.…
Read MoreStill seeking social commerce
Pinterest wannabes with tighter commerce hooks are raising good money. But social commerce likely needs to be multi-channel for a big payoff.…
Read MoreTechstars-backed Pickie raises $1M for Flipboard-like app for shopping
Pickie, a recent graduate of TechStars New York, announced Monday that it has raised $1 million in seed funding from a range of investors, including DFJ Gotham, Betaworks and Liberty City Ventures. The startup uses social data regarding products to generate personalized iPad-based magazines for shopping.…
Read MoreMapping Session results: Mobile shopping
Participants in a Mapping Session identified personalization as the key disruptive technology companies can exploit to jump-start mobile shopping. Other Disruption Vectors included location sensing and big data.…
Read MoreCan eBay tap into social commerce?
Ebay was social commerce before anyone coined the term, but its daily deal experiment feels like a PayPal extension rather than a bricks-and-clicks social commerce platform.…
Read MoreSocial marketplace Copious courts men, adds art categories
About a year after launching, social marketplace Copious is expanding to appeal to men. In addition to launching new men's clothing categories, it is also adding new verticals for photography, home decor and design.…
Read MoreExpect minimal a payoff from Facebook Gifts
Facebook received gushing reviews as it began to roll out Gifts, a mobile and web program for giving gift cards and physical goods. But gifts won’t transform Facebook, disrupt ecommerce, or solve the company’s mobile monetization issues.…
Read MoreFacebook gifting hardly revolutionary
Don't expect Facebook Gifts to represent a huge new revenue stream for the company.…
Read MoreShoes and subscriptions
ShoeDazzle's switch away from subscriptions cost its CEO his job. But do traditional subscription value propositions work for a big shoe-buying audience?…
Read MoreFancy that, Pinterest rival brings yet another subscription box to market
Social shopping startup Fancy is getting into subscription commerce with a new monthly box of items curated by its community of two million members. Despite the glut of subscription commerce companies, Fancy says members requested the new box.…
Read MorePinterest rival Fancy gets into group gifting
New York-based social commerce platform Fancy is rolling out a new option that lets users organize group gifts. The startup also announced a new partnership with American Express that it says could mark the beginning of an extended relationship.…
Read MoreTreater nets $2.5M for just-because social gifts
Treater, a social gifting startup launching Wednesday, wants to use Facebook help people send impromptu, casual gifts to friends. The Washington, DC-based startup is also announcing that it has raised $2.5 million dollars.…
Read MoreToday in Social
The Wall Street Journal underscores social commerce giant Groupon’s woes in a story that points out that Andreessen Horowitz thought the company’s…
Read MoreGroupocalypse: Groupon loses its way
In my last few Weekly Updates, I’ve written about Zynga and Facebook, two companies whose business models I’ll continue to defend. But right now they…
Read MoreToday in Social
Groupon delivered quarterly revenue figures in the middle of its guidance, but that was below Wall Street expectations. Revenue grew 45 percent…
Read MoreSocial lags search and email in driving ecommerce conversions, revenue
Retailers are looking increasingly to social networks to bring in customers and ultimately drive more sales. But data from online marketing provider Monetate show that social still lags email and search in sales conversions and average purchase amounts.…
Read MoreWith $1M, Boomerang launches locally-focused social gifting platform
Chicago-based Boomerang, backed by Groupon founders' Lightbank, is launching Tuesday to give Facebook users a way to give friends paperless gifts, including vouchers for local restaurants, spas, sporting companies and theaters. Some gift options are free, offering merchants a new way to attract customers.…
Read MoreFab plays up social in new mobile app, adds Facebook Connect
Design shopping site Fab on Thursday released an updated version of its mobile app, which enhances social sharing, and it added Facebook connect to allow members to sign in with their Facebook credentials. The company said social and mobile are driving a lot of traffic.…
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