Wanelo

Wanelo
Type of business Private
Headquarters San Francisco
Founder(s) Deena Varshavskaya
CEO Deena Varshavskaya
Industry Internet, e-Commerce, Consumer Goods
Employees 33[1]
Slogan(s) "The digital mall on your phone."
Website http://wanelo.com
Users 11 million[2]
Launched 2012

Wanelo (“wah-nee-loh,” from Want, Need, Love) is a digital mall where people can discover and buy products on the internet.[3][4][5] The site has over 12 million products posted by users from over 300,000 stores, including both large brands and independent sellers, like those found on Etsy.[4][6][7] Wanelo launched in 2012 and is headquartered in San Francisco’s SoMa district.[8][9][10]

Deena Varshavskaya, Wanelo’s founder and CEO, started the company. Varshavskaya found it frustrating to shop for unique items in mainstream malls and wanted to know what her friends were shopping for, but there was not yet an existing platform that made online social shopping easy.[11][12] Varshavskaya, born in Siberia, moved to the US when she was 16.[13][14] She attended Cornell University, left two classes short of graduating, and founded two companies before starting Wanelo.[13][14][15][16][17]

Usage

As of August 2014, Wanelo had 11 million[2] registered users, up from one million in November 2012.[4][18][19] 90% of Wanelo’s members are women, though the number of male users on the site is increasing.[20][21][22] Along with its website, Wanelo has mobile apps for iOS and Android operating systems.[6][18][19][22][23] 85% of Wanelo's traffic is from mobile devices.[1]

Users can create an account on the site by signing up via email or connecting via Facebook.[24] On Wanelo, all products are posted by users and everything on the site is purchasable. Wanelo users can collect products, follow stores and people and see what’s trending on the site. Wanelo users post links to items they want to buy from any online store by using the POST+ link online, the Google Chrome extension, or with Wanelo’s browser bookmarklet.[14][25][26][27] Users can also “Save” items others have posted on Wanelo into their own wish lists, or make purchases by clicking “Buy”.[7][13][14][15][28][26][26][29][30][31][32][33]

When users post products from a new store, a representative from that store can then "claim" their store page and manage its posting on Wanelo.[13][14][26][33] Users can also search for products via hashtags, like many other social networks.[7][14][15][34]

Business

Wanelo is a social platform where users come to shop.[35][36] Retailers and brands are able to claim and manage their store pages, enabling them to engage with the community via comments, stories, and gain visibility to which of their products are trending.[33][37] Some retailers, including Abercrombie & Fitch, are adding the Wanelo Save button to their e-commerce websites.[38][39]

Funding

Wanelo has raised US$14 million in funding. It closed its seed-funding round in March 2012 from Floodgate Capital, First Round Capital, Forerunner Ventures, Naval Ravikant, and others.[4][7][8][13][18][35] In March 2013, Wanelo raised another US$11 million, reportedly raising their valuation to US$100 million.[4][5][14][15][18][37]

References

  1. 1 2 "The Power Women Who Are Reinventing The Way You Shop Fashion Online". Forbes. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
  2. 1 2 "With Enough Customers, You Don't Need a Product". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
  3. ↑ Colleen Taylor (August 26, 2013). "Now With 10M Users, Wanelo Adds Search And 'Stories' To Its Hot Social Shopping App". Tech Crunch. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Jenna Wortham (August 16, 2013). "Hanging Out at the E-Mall". New York Times. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  5. 1 2 Jenna Wortham (August 29, 2013). "Which Start-Up Could Be the Next Big Thing?". New York Times. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  6. 1 2 Colleen Leahey (May 29, 2013). "Why your teen loves Wanelo". CNN Money. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Jenna Wortham (January 24, 2013). "Wanelo: Social Commerce Site Is Big With Young Shoppers". New York Times Bits. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  8. 1 2 Eliza Kern (May 7, 2013). "Social shopping app Wanelo's redesign puts users in charge as it eyes a wider audience". Gigaom. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  9. ↑ Matt Stuart. "The hot mall drawing 8 million shopaholics". CNN Money. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  10. ↑ "Next Big Thing? Wanelo Is a Twitter for Products". Bloomberg TV. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  11. ↑ http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/24/a-look-at-wanelo-a-social-commerce-site-for-younger-shoppers/?_r=0
  12. ↑ Danica Lo (September 9, 2013). "Glamour and the CFDA Hosted a Fashion Hackathon This Weekend! Here's What Happened". Glamour. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 Liz Gannes (April 30, 2013). "Meet Deena Varshavskaya, CEO of Social Shopping Sensation Wanelo". All Things D. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Tomio Geron (March 27, 2013). "Inside Wanelo, The Hot Social Shopping Service". Forbes. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Leena Rao (March 27, 2013). "With 6M Users, Hot Social Ecommerce Startup Wanelo Is Seeing 8M Products Saved Every Day". Tech Crunch. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  16. ↑ Tsotsis, Alexia (May 7, 2013). "Internet Mall Wanelo Gets Personal With Wanelo 3.0". Tech Crunch. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  17. ↑ Lauren Hockenson (May 16, 2013). "7 Tablet Apps for Shopaholics". Mashable. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  18. 1 2 3 4 Natalia Angulo (July 26, 2013). "Wanelo, Next Verb in Digital Dictionary?". Fox Business. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  19. 1 2 Eliza Kern (June 12, 2013). "Wanelo CEO: we're going to see a shift in power when it comes to social shopping". Gigaom. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  20. ↑ "ke Mall Browsing, With a Click". The New York Times. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
  21. ↑ "3 brands that are driving the future of social-mobile shopping". The Next Web. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
  22. 1 2 Julie Ma (June 25, 2013). "Wanelo: The Online Shopping Site Built by a Woman for Women". New York Magazine The Cut. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  23. ↑ John Patrick Pullen (August 11, 2013). "Giving Ecommerce a Social Twist". Entrepreneur. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  24. ↑ Marie Look (September 19, 2013). "Wanelo is Your Next Shopping Addiction". App Storm. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  25. ↑ "Startups like Fab, Fancy, Svpply, Wish and Wanelo are using social networks to transform the digital shopping experience.". Smart Planet. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
  26. 1 2 3 4 Alexia Tsotsis (June 8, 2012). "Wanelo Raises $2M … But Is Distilling Pinterest To Products The Right Idea?". Tech Crunch. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  27. ↑ "Wanelo Shopping". App Annie. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  28. ↑ Alexia Tsotsis (April 16, 2013). "Software Is Eating The Mall". Tech Crunch. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  29. ↑ Lorraine Sanders. "What Style Startups Mean For Women in Tech". Fast Company. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  30. ↑ Sonali Mathur (August 21, 2013). "Wanelo Founder: How I Got 10M Members With No Marketing". Women 2.0. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  31. ↑ Jennifer Wang (May 23, 2011). "How Polyvore Became a Trend-Setter in Social Shopping". Entrepreneur. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  32. ↑ Lorenzo Orlando Caum (November 27, 2012). "Wanelo Bookmarklet for iPad". iOS Bookmarklets. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  33. 1 2 3 Heather Clancy (June 24, 2013). "What You Need to Know About Wanelo". Intuit. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  34. ↑ "What's Wanelo? Why small retailers should care". ZDNet. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
  35. 1 2 Rebecca Grant (May 7, 2013). "Wanelo 3.0 makes e-commerce less 'primitive' by organizing products around people". Venture Beat. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  36. ↑ Erin Griffith (May 7, 2013). "Naval Ravikant joins board of Wanelo as the fast-growing social commerce site expands beyond its mall rat demographic". Pando Daily. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  37. 1 2 Jenna Wortham (March 27, 2013). "Wanelo, Social Commerce Site, Picks Up Speed". New York Times Bits. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  38. ↑ "Forget Facebook And Pinterest, Wanelo Is The Hottest Social Network For Urban Outfitters". Buzzfeed Business. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
  39. ↑ "No distractions". Internet Retailer. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
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