Platforms like Etsy and eBay offer community-oriented hubs through which people can open virtual storefronts, while services like Lyst and OpenSky allow members to shop in a manner that’s similar to following people on Twitter. While certainly social, these offerings don’t necessarily facilitate transactions between people within their own social networks. An emergent crop of online marketplaces, however, seeks to give retail entrepreneurs a seamless way to market to the people they already know.
Threadflip: For those with an addiction to shopping, the burden of closet cleaning is often less about parting ways with a previously cherished item than it is about deciding how best to get rid of it. Such was the consumer insight (gleaned from his wife and her friends) that inspired engineer Manik Singh to launch Threadflip. The online bazaar simplifies the buying and selling of used clothing and accessories by synching listings with social network streams and by providing “end-to-end” service. Right after an item is purchased, Threadflip sends the seller prepaid shipping materials. Then, once the package is ready to go, the seller merely calls for a pick-up.
Just as the ways that we shop have undergone dramatic alterations over the past decade (think online auctions, cyber sales assistants, and flash sales), the retail transaction is poised to see tremendous transformations in the years ahead as well. Not everyone is comfortable with the idea of digital wallets quite yet, but with more merchants and consumers alike looking to ditch clunky cash registers and doorstopper billfolds, the technology is evolving.
PayPal Here: Square has become a vital tool among small business owners who operate between the online realm and the real world, whether it be by running a flea market stall or making guest appearances at curated retail events. Looking to capture that expanding mode of entrepreneurship, PayPal recently launched a competitor. Called PayPal Here, the credit card-swiping smartphone attachment, designed in an au courant triangular shape by Yves Behar-helmed firm Fuseproject, works with a companion app to do the work normally done by a cash register. Besides processing financial plastic, the app can also issue invoices and can even, through photos of checks and credit cards, process payments minus the magic triangle.
It’s become all too easy to capture an elegant photograph. That’s not to say that professional photographers are in danger of being supplanted entirely by Instagrammers. However, the bar for what defines an impressive photo is continually elevating—which might be why illustration, an art form that’s harder to fake, is emerging as the visual mode du jour among consumers and marketers alike. It’s time to get scribblin’.
Draw Something: No one has gotten kicked off of a plane for refusing to take a break from it (yet) but, just six weeks after launching, Draw Something has already earned a massive league of addicts—30 million of them. The new social mobile game, which is currently the top downloaded game in the iTunes store, is a digital version of Pictionary that leverages a smartphone’s touchscreen. As game creator/OMGPOP CEO Dan Porter noted during a CNET interview, the title stands out in the cluttered game space not only because it forces players to stretch their right brain muscles but also because its strategy hinges on “the mechanics of relationships between people.”
Aside from the obvious, like the current state of the real estate market, brick-and-mortar stores are facing a number of challenges lately. For one, customer service expectations are shifting, as shoppers have become accustomed to more independent modes of consumerism online. Needless to say, it takes guts to open up shop these days, yet these three retail projects may be trailblazing new ways to make the cash register sing.
Openspace: Having opened at a time when entertainment media is increasingly moving into the cloud, a physical store that sells intangible items may seem counterintuitive. But at least one entrepreneur is hedging his bets on the fact that it’s a business model for the new era. Robert Reich’s Openspace, a downtown Boulder, Colorado store that opened its doors in December, sells…apps? The cornerstone of the shop is its “App Gurus,” a team of expert staffers, similar to Apple store Geniuses, intended to educate and aid shoppers who typically have difficulty navigating cyber stores. It’s a bold move, but one that already has franchise offers on the table.
Even with the ascendant appeal of locally grown organic food, many people live in areas that lack the abundance of fresh goods they crave and are thus forced to default to less nutritious options. Fortunately, in response to the mounting demand for better accessibility, convenience stores, restaurants and markets are finding new ways to bring farm fresh food to anyone, anywhere.
Stockbox Grocers: From its outside appearance, Stockbox may look like any unassuming shipping container but, after stepping inside, shoppers will discover a miniature grocer packed with fresh fruits, vegetables and dry goods. The mobile market was conceived as a solution for “food deserts,” those densely populated, often low-income, neighborhoods that lack pedestrian access to healthy, affordable food. Delridge, Seattle is home to Stockbox’s first location, where more than 300 essential grocery items are available in just 160 square feet of space. With the help of Kickstarter funding, Stockbox hopes to expand into dozens of locations around the country, enabling everyone to have access to food that makes them feel good.
