The mobile shopping experience is getting more attention than ever before, with Instagram’s latest shopping feature enabling in-app purchases. But Storr, a new peer-to-peer retail marketplace, is aiming to disrupt the online shopping experience by allowing anyone to open a store on its platform and start making up to 30% commission on sales from product recommendations.
Storr is built on the premise that consumers readily seek out influencers they admire and trust for recommendations, rather than shop directly from brands. Customers can look at the Storr pages of individuals and find a selection of products that have been endorsed by the page owner. They can then complete a purchase on the page, which is fulfilled by the brand, while the owner of the Storr page receives commission.
“Storr brings back the personal touch and curation that is so often lacking in today’s e-commerce environment,” said Jennifer Fleiss, co-founder of Rent the Runway. “They have built an experience that prioritizes shopping but leverages social trust, enabling consumers to share and discover favorite finds.”
After a pilot run in January, Storr has added 30,000 new sellers from its waitlist, who are able to select products from 175 brands. Participating footwear brands include Birdies, Cult Gaia, Margaux, Oliver Cabell and Rothy’s.
Terri Sandblom, a retired marketing professional who is also known by her Storr name “Cha Cha,” has become a top seller on the site and describes Storr as “the easiest business you can open.”
Unlike other online marketplaces, Storr page owners don’t incur inventory or fulfillment costs. Instead, they select their promoted items from the collections of participating brands, who are responsible for all order management and shipping. The concept is similar to how influencers promote items on Instagram, except that influencers don’t currently earn commission from in-app Instagram sales; the brands pay Instagram an undisclosed seller fee for that feature.
“Twenty-one percent of U.S. shoppers made a purchase as a result of peer social media recommendations, but the $3 trillion global e-commerce industry traditionally pays commissions on sales to giant, established retailers,” said Eric Senn, CEO of Storr. “Now, people on Storr will get a share of that revenue instead of Amazon, Instagram or other third-party retailers.”
Storr sellers are also given the option to donate a portion of their earnings to one of the platform’s participating charities. By having sellers declare this information on their page, Storr hopes that users will be encouraged to spend more as their purchase will also have some social impact. Charity partners working with Storr include Conservation International, DonorsChoose and PAWS.
Watch the video below to see influencer Alexa Chung discuss style and her own collection:
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