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

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

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. 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.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. 1 2 "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. 1 2 3 Tomio Geron (March 27, 2013). "Inside Wanelo, The Hot Social Shopping Service". Forbes. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  19. 1 2 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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