Wanelo

Wanelo is an e-commerce company headquartered in San Francisco’s SoMa district. It was founded in 2012 by Deena Varshavskaya.[3][4][5]

Wanelo
Type of businessPrivate
HeadquartersSan Francisco
Founder(s)Deena Varshavskaya
CEODeena Varshavskaya
IndustryInternet, e-Commerce, Consumer Goods
Employees33[1]
URLhttp://wanelo.com
Users11 million[2]
Launched2012

History

Deena Varshavskaya founded the company because she felt frustrated by shopping in physical malls and wanted a social media platform that would allow her to see what her friends were buying. In 2010, she hired a web developer to help her create the website, which underwent numerous changes into 2011.[6] The website's name "Wanelo" is a combination of the words "want", "need" and "love".[7]

The company raised $2 million in seed-funding round in March 2012 from investors including Floodgate Capital and First Round Capital.[8][9] In March 2013, Wanelo raised $10 million in funding reportedly raising their valuation to US$100 million.[10] Wanelo 3.0 was launched in 2013.[11]

The company was one of several websites whose user data was hacked and sold by GnosticPlayers in 2019.[12]

Overview

Wanelo is a social platform where users can share and search for items,[13] which they purchase through the retailer's website.[14] The site does not feature any advertisements[15] and is primarily monetized through affiliate marketing.[16] Users can create an account on the site by signing up via email or connecting via Facebook.[17] The site only allows items which are currently available for purchase to be posted.[15]

Wanelo users can post products or follow stores and people.[18][19] Users can also “Save” items others have posted on Wanelo into their own wish lists.[20] Users can also search for products via hashtags, like many other social networks.[18][21] The site's layout, which allows users to save and share images of items, has been compared to Pinterest.[18][19]

Retailers whose products are posted on the website are able to create store pages, which they can organize and manage.[22][23] Some retailers, including Abercrombie & Fitch added cross-functionality with Wanelo to their own online storefronts.[24][25]

Usage

As of August 2014, Wanelo had 11 million[2] registered users, up from one million in November 2012.[26] As of 2014, 90% of Wanelo's members were women and 60% were under the age of 24.[27][28] Along with its website, Wanelo has mobile apps for iOS and Android operating systems.[29][30] 85% of Wanelo's traffic is from mobile devices.[1]

References
  1. "The Power Women Who Are Reinventing The Way You Shop Fashion Online". Forbes. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
  2. "With Enough Customers, You Don't Need a Product". Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg Businessweek. 25 April 2014. Archived from the original on April 25, 2014. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
  3. 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.
  4. Matt Stuart. "The hot mall drawing 8 million shopaholics". CNN Money. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  5. "Next Big Thing? Wanelo Is a Twitter for Products". Bloomberg TV. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  6. "Wanelo: Social Commerce Site is Big with Young Shoppers". 24 January 2013.
  7. Marikar, Sheila (7 May 2014). "Like Mall Browsing, With a Click". The New York Times. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
  8. Jenna Wortham (August 16, 2013). "Hanging Out at the E-Mall". New York Times. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  9. Jenna Wortham (January 24, 2013). "Wanelo: Social Commerce Site Is Big With Young Shoppers". New York Times Bits. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  10. Yarow, Jay. "Online shopping mall Wanelo raised $10 m". Business Insider. Retrieved 2023-07-30.
  11. Lorraine Sanders (7 May 2013). "What Style Startups Mean For Women in Tech". Fast Company. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  12. "A hacker has dumped nearly one billion user records over the past two months". ZDNET. Retrieved 2023-07-30.
  13. Rebecca Grant (May 7, 2013). "Wanelo 3.0 makes e-commerce less 'primitive' by organizing products around people". Venture Beat. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  14. John Patrick Pullen (August 11, 2013). "Giving Ecommerce a Social Twist". Entrepreneur. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  15. "Startups like Fab, Fancy, Svpply, Wish and Wanelo are using social networks to transform the digital shopping experience". Smart Planet. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
  16. Tsotsis, Alexia (May 7, 2013). "Internet Mall Wanelo Gets Personal With Wanelo 3.0". Tech Crunch. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  17. Marie Look (September 19, 2013). "Wanelo is Your Next Shopping Addiction". App Storm. Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  18. Tomio Geron (March 27, 2013). "Inside Wanelo, The Hot Social Shopping Service". Forbes. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  19. Alexia Tsotsis (June 8, 2012). "Wanelo Raises $2M … But Is Distilling Pinterest To Products The Right Idea?". Tech Crunch. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  20. 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.
  21. 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.
  22. Jenna Wortham (March 27, 2013). "Wanelo, Social Commerce Site, Picks Up Speed". New York Times Bits. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  23. "What's Wanelo? Why small retailers should care". ZDNet. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
  24. "Forget Facebook And Pinterest, Wanelo Is The Hottest Social Network For Urban Outfitters". Buzzfeed Business. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
  25. "No distractions". Internet Retailer. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
  26. Natalia Angulo (July 26, 2013). "Wanelo, Next Verb in Digital Dictionary?". Fox Business. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  27. "3 brands that are driving the future of social-mobile shopping". The Next Web. 24 May 2014. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
  28. 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.
  29. Colleen Leahey (May 29, 2013). "Why your teen loves Wanelo". CNN Money. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  30. 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.
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