New Social Commerce Platform, Fancy, Hits 500,000 Users

Image: TheFancy.com

New York start-up ThingD recently introduced a new social commerce platform for its site, Fancy, which allows brands and retailers to sign up and sell any item that has been “fancied” on the site. Since it’s launch in February, Fancy has accumulated an astounding 500,000 users and more than 1,000 merchants signing up to list their products.

The Pinterest-like discovery site enables deals and offers online, and will soon be offering its services on Android smartphones and tablets. The site is an exciting foray into the social commerce industry by building off of a large database of products and connecting consumers with countless items.

Perhaps not surprisingly, some of the minds behind the new online platform are some of the creators of the most popular social media sites, Twitter and Facebook. ThingD board members include Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey, PPR Chairman Francois-Henri Pinault and Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook.

Though still in its “early” stages, Fancy is certainly showing potential, and growth. According to the website, Fancy is the ideal place to “discover amazing stuff, collect the things you love, unlock crazy good deals.” Once success story thus far includes that of Jake Frey, a design student, who received a lot of interest on Fancy for his light switch that doubles as a key holder. User interest on Fancy eventually led to a $250,000 angel investment to start production.

Source: Gigaom