(NEW YORK) Luvocracy is spreading the love. The newly-launched social shopping website allows users to not only post their favorite products (a la Pinterest), but also lets you reap the benefits. How does it work? Whenever a user purchases one of your recs, you actually earn monetary credits that can be used towards the items on your wish list. Or, those credits can be applied directly as cash. You can also interact with users to thank them for a rec, add them to your list of favorites, recommend products and more.
Founder and CEO Nathan Stoll was an early Googler genius who helped expand Google News to over 40 countries and created the first social search engine, Aardvark, which he subsequently sold to his former employer. Backing the venture is Roger Barnett, founder of e-commerce maquillage mecca, Beauty.com. Together the two have enlisted tastemakers in various fields to get the ball rolling, like fashion veterans Kate Betts and Harriet Mays Powell, who have curated their pages with everything from Betts’ favorite jasmine green patent Gucci loafers to Powell’s favorite lacquer from Paris’ runways, Chanel’s burgundy-hued Malice. Ruemag.com‘s EIC and founder, Crystal Gentilello, recommended a pair of Lulu Frost statement earrings. The danglers generated enough sales for Gentilello to earn enough credit from sales to collect on a pair of the covetable baubles for herself. What’s more? Gentilello has even used the site as a tool to curate gift guide pages for her online mag. “For our holiday issue, we actually linked all of our holiday gift guides directly to Luvocracy and the response was really great, because they could shop for everything all on one site,” said Gentilello.
Not wowed yet? Luvocracy has staffers that compare pricetags for you. Anytime you purchase a product, the site automatically tracks down the best price available. On top of that, they’ll coordinate your returns. Convenient much? “Years of sitting in the front row at fashion shows always brings questions like, ‘Where did you get those earrings? Where did you find those shoes?’ or, ‘I love your bag!’ So this feels like a natural outlet to spread the word,” said Betts. That’s how most shopping gets done, according to Stoll: “There’s a Nielsen study that says about 92 percent of all economic transactions, loosely defined, start through word of mouth recommendation.” After all, copying is the sincerest form of flattery. In our friends we trust.
PAIGE REDDINGER
