Launched in Boston in 2008, UsTrendy is the world’s largest online indie marketplace. The local company currently hosts 20,000 global, independent vendors, who are given a marketplace to sell their clothing and accessories directly to consumers on an international scale, who can then repay the budding designers with valuable feedback.
After six years of growth, UsTrendy has relaunched and debuted a new million dollar platform. UsTrendy Founder Sam Sisakhti told BostInno in an email that the company realized that, after expanding, it needed a new platform, one that would work seamlessly across three devices: laptops, tablets and mobile phones. So, they turned to e-commerce software and platform company Magento, and ended up using Magento partner and digital agency Corra to build out what Sisakhti calls a “robust commerce platform.”
As mentioned, the new platform adapts to different devices, resulting in unique experiences on laptops, tablets and mobile devices. According to Sisakhti, 60 percent of UsTrendy’s users are accessing the site on their mobile phones, and since the launch of the new platform, the company has seen a higher conversion rate for those switching to the mobile experience.
While UsTrendy’s ability to gather up-and-coming independent designers all into one place is part of its draw, Sisakhti admits that the ever-growing marketplace can be overwhelming to sift through. To improve upon the way shoppers wade through designers and collections, UsTrendy will roll out a personalized shopping experience for regular users. While this is still in development, Sisakhti says this will mean personalized newsletters, suggested items and, eventually, an individualized custom shopping section for visitors.
In addition to perfecting the customer experience across different devices and within the marketplace, Siskahti says that UsTrendy also tapped into the desires and suggestions of their vendors (the independent designers) to find out what the site could improve on. This resulted in UsTrendy developers tweaking the site’s backend and creating a “highly automated backend vendor portal” that allows vendors to more easily manage their businesses and sell their goods through the site. Sisakhti says that the new platform has also opened a better communication channel between vendors, UsTrendy users and customer care associates.
In an interview with BostInno in 2013, Sisakhti spoke to his decision to keep his fashion-tech company, whose office is located in the Back Bay, anchored in the Boston area:
We’re starting to create a prototype for fashion tech, and being a large indie fashion company based in Boston will make people realize you can do this in Boston. There’s a growing scene.
Since, numerous fashion-tech companies have popped in the Boston area, from apps like online boutique marketplace Boutikey to personalized Pinterest platform Tisket.
Still, Sisakhti has looked toward Silicon Valley for one thing. In 2011, UsTrendy raised $1 million in venture capital after West Coast VC Tim Draper took interest in the company. Since then, UsTrendy hasn’t announced more funding.
Coming up, look out for Sisakhti during the 2015 Internet Retail Convention and Exhibition (IRCE), the largest retail convention in the world. The UsTrendy founder and Brandeis graduate’s been invited to speak during the conference, alongside other speakers like the CEO of Ebay.
Images via UsTrendy
