Swipely – The Social Shopping Site
Swipely, which is still in beta stage, is a new social startup that promises to make shopping a more entertaining necessity. As they state on their website, Swipely’s vision is “to reinvent how people shop, share and save by adding value to every swipe”.
But how can shopping become a social affair? Well, Swipely aims to calculate and store every transaction you make – whether by email receipt or credit card connection, and then compares this to restaurant menus and product catalogs. This will lead to a system that lets people actually see what your own purchases are in real time, connecting both retailer and consumer in a more direct manner, which (according to Swipely) will help both parties benefit (the latest deals for the consumer, and of course – a targeted customer for the retailer).
Of course, security is always a must in the social commerce world, and Swipely is no exception – all users must approve every purchase that they choose to share on their account via the online interface (although there will be an option for automated sharing).
Already Swipely have raised a staggering $7.5 million in funding, led by Index Ventures and with further support from First Round Capital and Greylock Ventures. Davis, First Round and Conway previously helped raise $1 million for the new Social Commerce startup.
To conclude – Swipely aims to save its userbase money, whilst helping to provide growth to various markets. Making shopping a social affair is a new concept, and Swipely aim to accomplish this in a multitude of ways – whether this will be accomplished by introducing an online game leaderboard with the highest ‘savers’, or via a Facebook-style interaction service remains to be seen.
