Mobile payment startup Square brings a virtual currency world closer with new partnership with Coinbase
A sci-fi world where we all carry virtual currency in preference to the ‘real’ stuff has come a step closer, thanks to a new partnership between the increasingly popular mobile payment provider Square and Bitcoin wallet Coinbase. It doesn’t take a seasoned product manager to recognize that this is a potentially big development for the future of the cryptocurrency. Simple and painless for buyer and seller alike All goods and services on the startup’s online storefront, Square Marketplace, will now be available to buy with Bitcoin as well as with traditional bank or credit cards (the Marketplace in a kind of virtual one-stop-shop featuring items from ecommerce merchants who are actually geographically scattered across the world). The more skeptical product manager may be speculating whether this is just a shameless attempt to ride the Bitcoin hype wave; but he or she would be wrong. Square’s market lead, Ajit Varma, explains in the company blog announcing the move that sellers won’t notice anything different (apart perhaps from better sales) and buyers will find it simple and painless, thanks to the adroit technological processing Square has put in place. Buyers simply scan the QR code in their Bitcoin wallets to load the…
Birchbox follows Warby Parker, Bonobos, with new bricks-and-mortar store alongside its ecommerce site
Most savvy ecommerce analysts are aware that ecommerce has been undergoing a makeover of late: the way to go, after establishing an online presence, appears to be combining web-based ecommerce stores with the bricks-and-mortar variety. And New York-based subscription beauty product startup Birchbox has just decided to take that particular bull by the horns as it turns four years of age. As reported in the New York Times, a new permanent retail store is moving out of the planning stage and is due to open on West Broadway in Manhattan’s SoHo shopping district very shortly (probably May). Growth potential Co-founders Katia Beauchamp (31) and Hayley Barna (30), who became friends and founded Birchbox while students at Harvard Business School, say the new initiative has less to do with in-store revenues than with the growth potential a bricks-and-mortar store can offer. As Ms. Beauchamp puts it: “We are not focused on profitability, we are focused on hypergrowth. We like the idea of building a store along with the business.” The perspicuous ecommerce analyst will recognize that Birchbox is following a lengthening line of successful ecommerce startups which, having enjoyed connecting with real life customers via pop-up shops, decided to acquire permanent…
Can New York ecommerce startup Grand St do for indie hardware designers what Etsy did for indie crafters?
Even a novice ecommerce analyst would concur that if an ecommerce startup manages to achieve a repeat-buyer rate of 40 percent and crosses the $1 million mark in revenues after just six months of trading, it’s onto a pretty hot business idea. And this is precisely what Grand St., the New York startup aiming to become the Etsy of electronics, has done. Etsy for electronics Co-founder Amanda Peyton realized that there are tens of thousands of hardware startups in existence, creating seriously snazzy consumer gadgets that you simply won’t find in stores. Things like “Everpurse”, a bag that doubles as a smartphone recharger, or modular robotic kits, or “smart” dog collars. The list goes on. After curating a small daily selection of goods since its launch last July, the startup decided last month to expand its ecommerce store into a larger marketplace for indie hardware designers. Aptly named “Marketplace”, the new initiative has a number of key features which seasoned ecommerce analysts will recognize have real potential to make it the electronics version of Etsy. Firms with products ready for purchase can list them on Grand St, which takes an 8 percent cut of the sales. But Marketplace will also…
Borro, the London/New York virtual pawn shop for bigger ticket clients, sets sights on US expansion
You don’t need to be a seasoned ecommerce analyst to appreciate that, in the second decade of the twenty-first century, it’s possible to buy just about anything on the web. And online cash borrowing platform Borro sees no reason why ecommerce shouldn’t extend to being a high-end virtual pawn shop. Virtual pawning Co-headquartered in New York and London, Borro (which launched in 2007) recently successfully closed a private equity round totaling $112 million courtesy of Victory Park Capital. It doesn’t take a genius ecommerce analyst to work out why: last year, Borro made $17 million in revenue on the back of the $50 million it loaned. This year, revenue is expected to hit $30 million and the loan pool is on course to expand to $100 million. Customers needing cash can, if they have the items, go to Borro’s website and put valuable objects up as collateral (i.e., anything from fine art to fine wine, with jewelry, precious metals, luxury cars and watches welcomed too). Borro then sends one of its specialists (objects experts from various fields) to personally visit the client, evaluate and authenticate the item and take it back with them in exchange for cash (usually, 65 to…
Too busy to try the world? New York ecommerce startup Try The World has the solution
Hardworking ecommerce managers, like most people, probably dream of exotic vacations in far-flung places, sampling the delights of authentic local cuisine and goods as they go. But the time and cost involved in actually going on such excursions usually conspire to persuade most of us to take our vacations a little closer to home. A New York startup called “Try The World” may just offer the perfect solution for those who want to travel to the unfamiliar and faraway but lack the time and energy for long haul flights. Faraway delights at home For $45 every two months, the fledgling company will deliver a gourmet box packed with authentic delights from distant lands. Now that hardworking ecommerce manager can taste and touch the exotic from the comfort of home. David Foult founded Try The World last year with his Columbia University buddy Kat Vorotova out of their mutual love of travel. He explains how it works: “We leverage the expertise of locals and the crowd to select the best products from each country so that our users get an authentic and delightful experience for all five senses every time they open a Try The World box. We envision that Try…
