If you like shopping and have a few minutes to kill, there are a bunch of ways you can scratch that itch on social media, following brands you like on Instagram,
Entrepreneur and investor David Tisch has spent a year and a half building a startup that is betting that all of that is basically fluff.
"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."
That sounds great. What brand wouldn't want you to feel that way as you look at their stuff, especially on your smartphone where you're now spending as much time as you do sleeping? Cue the mad rush of startups to find an angle into this space, looking to pique the interest of the user while promising a payoff to the brand that engages. For all the Wanelos and discovery apps that claim millions of registered users, there are others that have tried to bridge that gap through discounts and flash sales, like the recently-shuttered Hukkster.
Spring is trying, at least, to be something different. For starters, it's courting the brands pretty upfront, offering them a parent app where they can live and easily post products "with souls," Tisch says. Spring 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. In a demo for Forbes, Tisch looks at an Italian suit, puts in his measurements, and spends an imaginary $4,000 on it by paying with pre-entered credit card information in just 10 or 15 seconds.
"We're not a lifestyle app, we're a mobile marketplace of brands to consumers, a direct channel," Tisch says. That means no dedicated social tools or reliance on sharing with friends within the app, something Tisch says has led past startups to lose their way. Instead, Tisch wants users to share what they see on the big social players of Twitter, Facebook or Instagram--and then come back to buy at Spring.
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. There's also a discovery section where fashion bloggers like The Man Repeller can post collections and editorial content (without compensation). Flag something as a favorite, and the app will send you a push notification if it's running out or going on sale.
(For more on how an app like Spring is doing away with the shopping cart, see here.)
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
The big question for Spring will be how much time its brand partners give it to find traction. The app is only available on iPhones for now. And Tisch admits that brands are split in what they're looking for out of getting in bed with the startup. "Some brands see it as social marketing, looking for engagement, but some see e-commerce and want immediate sales. We were careful not to promise anything yet in terms of results."
Tisch hopes that brands will promote their participation on their sites and social channels much as they would an individual app in their name. But it's obvious Spring's gotten in the door so far thanks to Tisch, a well-known figure in the New York tech scene as cofounder of local accelerator TechStars NYC and as a prolific early-stage investor. Tisch can pull strings, but it's his little brother and cofounder Alan who is CEO. Both have had an eye for e-commerce since they were kids, David Tisch says, with Alan's Nike shoes reselling operation trouncing David's baseball card venture. Rounding out the founding team are CTO Octavian Costache, a
Spring's connected, and it's well-funded for an app at launch, too, with $7.5 million in venture funding from Thrive Capital and a slew of investors with ties to fashion and retail. It's gone 18 months just building the app pre-launch and has 32 employees. And it's had interest from well-connected partners like the Warby Parker founders from conception.
If anyone's going to figure out how brands can really make money of mobile commerce, Spring should, at least by its position at launch. But to avoid the fate of its erstwhile startup neighbor Hukkster, Spring won't be able to rely on its brand friends for too long. You can build it, but then the shoppers have to come.
