You no longer have to be a wealthy celebrity to employ your own personal shopper. ShopThing, which lets viewers purchase the clothes and other items they see during live streams, just announced $10 million in new Series A funding led by Origin Ventures.
Maggie Adhami-Boynton, ShopThing’s founder, told TechCrunch that she was inspired to create her platform after finding a streamer who used Instagram Live to help her followers shop for clothes. At its core, that’s what ShopThing does: Its community of more than 100 personal shoppers and influencers go into stores and choose items to recommend to viewers. Anyone watching the ShopThing stream can then purchase the featured items and check out via the app. ShopThing adds a 20% fee to all orders submitted this way, but it also works with brands like Nordstrom to offer exclusive discounts for its users.
In addition to its band of streamers, four-year-old ShopThing counts about 500,000 users on the consumer side. With its fresh funding in tow, the company is planning to expand internationally. It currently ships to buyers in the United States and Canada.
“We’re currently in about seven or eight markets and we want to be in 12 to 15 markets by the end of the year and increase our shopper team by about five times,” Adhami-Boynton told TechCrunch. “In terms of the future, we’re going to launch a membership program that will give our customers exclusive access to benefits and perks.”
The membership program Adhami-Boynton mentioned is expected to launch during the second quarter of 2022.
In addition to ShopThing, Origin Ventures has also taken stake in several other online video companies, including Cameo. “ShopThing sits at the crossroads of the rapidly expanding live shopping market and the evolving creator economy,” said Origin Ventures investor Jacquie Marshall Siegmund in a statement. “ShopThing allows Digital Natives – Millennials and Gen Z consumers who shop differently than previous generations – to experience and buy from luxury brands on mobile in seconds.”
Beyond Origin, other participants in the Series A include Pritzker Group and Interplay. ShopThing is currently available on iOS.
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