Our first introduction to SparkRebel was at the NY Tech Day event and we were intrigued by their idea of using a combination of visual discovery and social media influence to provide a personalized catalog of “fashion and shopping inspiration”. Looking very much like a style-dedicated image board with the added feature of direct links to featured retailers, the each individual’s SparkRebel gallery includes images of both commercial & inspirational products.
SparkRebel screen-shot.
We asked SparkRebel’s CEO, Elad Baron, about using a Pinterest-esque “visual discovery” model – early on, Baron and his team realized that “soft goods” (such as clothing) lend themselves to this method of presentation.
Similar to Pinterest’s “pinning”, users of SparkRebel are asked to “spark” images that inspire them. These images then build the user’s own profile and show in the stream of their followers.
The goal is to improve the tuning of the site until visitors are “wow’ed” every time, asking themselves “how did they know that I’d like this?”
– Elad Baron, SparkRebel CEO
We were especially curious about the hyper-focused content on the site. Specifically, if women’s fashion and beauty was just the start or a goal in itself… while a very broad customer-base might generate more sales, it would certainly dilute the focus of the stream. Flying in the face of the common mantra of increasing hits at all costs, Baron wishes to keep the vertical in sync with his audience.
SparkRebel is currently in private beta, but you can request an invite via a link on the sign-in window open beta, so go get your fashionista on. Visit sparkrebel.com to get started.
No comments yet.