Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Wanelo's Social Shopping Success

Wanelo--which stands for want, need, love--is a social shopping site targeting teens and 20-something consumers. Of the 8 million registered users, 90% are female--and more than half are under the age of 24.

The site's iPhone app has been downloaded 1.5 million times, indicating the extremely high level of interest from consumers in this highly mobile-savvy segment.

Of course Wanelo is highly social, with 161,000 FB likes and 15,000 Twitter followers, plus a small but fast-growing presence on Pinterest. The home page of its web site features "trending now" product photos reflecting what users are buying at the moment.

What sets Wanelo apart is that every link/photo takes you to a site where you can buy whatever is being discussed or pictured. Not a news item or a style blog, but a shopping site so users can click and buy. “Our core content is product,” according to founder Deena Varshavskaya. “Wanelo has a buy button on everything.”

This emphasis on commerce would be off-putting on most other social media sites. But with the revenue stream from commissions on purchases, Wanelo is profitable and doesn't need the clutter of ads that appear on most social sites. So the e-commerce angle is the whole point of sharing on Wanelo. Want, need, love something? Find it and buy it with minimal friction on Wanelo.

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