Mens Personal Shopping Site Goes Live
So excited to share the launch of a site a developer friend of mine has been toiling away on. Welcome to the world, Gentlemen Square.
A little like curated shopping sites Little Black Bag and Shoe Dazzle, at Gentlemen Square personal stylists put together a package of shirts, pants, and accessories based upon your preferences (via a quick survey when you get started). You pay for what you decide to keep and ship anything you’re not keen on back for free.
What makes this service different from a HisKit, which tends to ship accessories, gadgets and personal care samples, Gentlemen Square focuses on the foundations that make for a well-dressed modern man. By delivering a collection of wardrobe basics and contemporary essentials, the site aims to outfit the fellas with enough choices to make everyday dressing easy.
Even with albeit beautiful-looking shopping destinations like Gilt’s menswear site section, the onus is still on the man to pick and purchase single items which may or may not go with the other separates in his closet.
In contrast, Gentlemen Square exudes a deep understanding of how men shop, providing an innovative and convenient way to stop looking like clones of one another or worse: shop floor manequins.
Curated Collaborative Consumption Gets Gamified
Waaa. Brain explodes as social shopping buzzwords spill henceforth but here goes: @LittleBlackBag starts by reeling you in with a quiz to establish your fashion sense (not disimilar to ShoeDazzle et al.).
Next you are presented with a mystery bag of designer apparel and accessories curated by the sites stylists. Upon the big reveal, you have a week to rummage around the site to exchange pre-selected items for things you might prefer. Once the hunting and gathering is complete, your Little Black Bag (at varying pricepoints) is mailed to you — a bit like a Birchbox, if you will.
I have to say, I love how they’ve positioned the offering: Shop, Swap, Ship:
Members get freebies for inviting friends (nice audience acquisition/growth strategy) and by keeping the swap process open for a week, they’re ensuring a healthy return rate. Clever stuff. I suppose it remains to be seen if the merch holds up but with over 50 high-end brands already inked, this is one to watch.
PS you can also follow Little Black Bag on Pinterest, which is a perfect place for them to be. Again, another very smart way to drive traffic and capture the right audience for their launch.
Shoply: Pretty Much Etsy, Then?
As per TechCrunch, UK-based (and massively scaling) ecomm startup Shoply just got a nice little injection of cash and support from people who deftly navigate social networks, the so-called interest graph, and ecommerce.
After having a bit of a nose, it’s got a few more social features than other direct-to-consumer sites, and creates a much speedier journey down the path to purchase than other interest networks. But I can’t say I’m seeing a huge differentiator here.
Sellers get pretty nice listings pages with lots of sharing features. And the service skims off a commission on all items sold. As TechCrunch points out, some of the unregulated shipping fees prove some sellers are having a laugh but let’s keep an eye on this one.
