Understanding Shopping Needs Means Making A Lot of Money
This past weekend, I went shopping. A lot. Afterward, perhaps in an attempt to justify the fact that I bought 5 pairs of shoes, a ring, under-eye toner, eye brightener, and two sets of upscale press-on nails, I wrote up an analysis of my motivations, and what they said more broadly about the emotional experience of shopping - how it taps into aspiration, identity, connection and impulse - and how money is to be made from that. The details of my own experience are here, but it’s long, so I’ve excerpted the more generally applicable analysis of the startups/entrepreneurship below.
This - the emotional experience of and connection to shopping - is, by and large, a chick thing. (But not completely, cough cough Svpply.com cough). The experiences of shopping detailed here are by no means unique to me - nor are they unique to people who can never afford to go to Saks, or who can always afford to go to Saks (I fall rather closer to one end of the spectrum. Guess which one?) There is a definite commonality of the experience - and for those who understand that, there is lots of money to be made.
Which is why we are seeing such an explosion of great fashion-and-beauty related startups in New York - Fashism, Rent the Runway,Bauble Bar, Birchbox, Clothia, She Finds, AHA Life, Of A Kind, Go Try It On - because these are real experiences, and there are real pleasure and pain points within them that, if hit correctly, can open up a huge stream of commerce. Does this look okay on me? I can’t afford to buy that dress but oh wow would I feel amazing wearing it. I love accessories but can get overwhelmed by choice. The makeup counter confuses me - and is an expensive place to make wrong decisions. I like this skirt but what will it look like on me? I don’t want to wear what everyone else is wearing.
If you have never been at a makeup counter confronted with serums and creams and primers and toners and firmers and brighteners and concealers - all before you get to the various permutations of a mascara brush (and, perhaps, the hidden benefits), then maybe you won’t get Birchbox. And if you’ve never gotten googly-eyed over a dress you could never afford but sort of fall for in that I-just-want-to-be-near-you-and-maybe-stroke-you-gently-for-a-moment sort of way, then you might not understand what’s so special about Rent the Runway. And if you’ve never agonized in the harsh light of a fitting room over something you’ve just invested a solid 10 minutes squeezing into and just need some goddamned backup, then you might not see the power Fashism, or by extension, Honestly Now.
Which brings us back to last week’s discussion about the mostly male world of VC and angel investing, and the opportunities inherent in looking at ideas (and markets) from a diverse perspective. Those who “don’t get” those opportunities will miss out on them. Unfortunately, they’ll take the entrepreneurs who need the runway of their cash infusion with them. As I said yesterday, that does seem to be changing - it was back in October that Fred Wilson talked about being challenged at evaluating the fashion sector, and I bet his answers would be different today - things have moved very fast since then, and for the better. (And my gut says it will accrue to the benefit of Buyosphere, Tara Hunt’s shopping-meets-data-history startup, her experiences with which prompted her to write the blog post which started this conversation.)
But thinking back on my extravagant shopping experiences of the weekend, I was really struck by how much money I spent on things I didn’t really need for purely emotional reasons. And when you get that, you’ve got a gold mine.
