Fashion and beauty platform Styleshare has racked up 10 billion won (USD 8.75m) in transactions over the past 12 months via its online shopping service.
The startup was originally founded in 2011 and since then has grown into a popular platform for sharing fashion and beauty info, with over 2.8 million members. Styleshare launched its online store one year ago, and has become a popular shopping platform for young fashionistas, growing 30% every month.
While most people visit shopping websites with the intention of buying something, Styleshare is a little different and originally started out as a social media site for fashion and clothing. As its user base increased and people with similar interests connected with each other, the site added the ability to purchase featured products.
Because of Styleshare’s social media element, it has an average return visitor rate of 78% each week, higher than other typical shopping sites. Pinterest and Instagram also use a similar model, having recently implemented online purchasing features by adding ‘buy buttons’ to posts.
The majority of Styleshare’s content is user-generated, with users uploading photos of their daily fashion, or giving reviews of items they’ve purchased. This means online shoppers can get a feel for what people are actually wearing, rather than simply scanning through some brand’s latest clothing line. Around 10,000 posts are uploaded each day, with a total of over 9 million posts from users since the service began.
Styleshare currently sells 600 brands and some 25,000 different products, including fashion items from leading brands Who Are You, Beyond Closet and Charm’s.
“Being able to share content such as reviews and fashion tips while shopping at the same time is what makes Styleshare’s service unique,” says CEO Jayoung Yoon. “We want to grow into a platform and commerce service for anyone interested in fashion and beauty.”
