A new shopping app called Spring is being launched on iOS and the direct-sales platform claims to provide a seamless shopping experience.
Entrepreneur and angel investor David Tisch, who is known for having invested in over 100 startups including BoxGroup, Harry's and KitchenSurfing, is behind the app.
Spring, which raised $7.5 million in seed funds, is being hailed as a "scary easy way to shop" and present products in an Instagram-like fashion. This makes it easy for users to scroll through products and buy whatever they want with a single tap.
Spring essentially only acts as a referral engine, sending orders to the merchants who are actually selling the items. These merchants handle inventory, shipping and returns, just like they would at a storefront.
The app features all kinds of items and users can follow certain brands in order for the products to come up in their feeds. Spring also makes it easy for merchants to join, integrating with a brands already existing ecommerce platform. In fact, it's apparently as easy for merchants to post new products as it is for someone to post a photo on Facebook.
The first time the app is used, a user will upload his or her credit card information, clothing sizes and shipping address. This only needs to happen once, after which each purchase will automatically use that information. This helps make it easy to purchase items.
Spring also offers users total control over their feed, allowing them to decide exactly which brands are featured. This helps reduce the risk of a users feed being spammed with items that the user doesn't want to purchase.
"There has been a lot of talk about mobile being the future of commerce, but shopping on your phone was a clunky experience," said Tisch when asked about the origins of the app.
"We were frustrated by having to download multiple apps and visiting mobile optimized e-commerce sites that still had archaic checkout systems. So we built Spring to create a mobile experience where customers can shop directly from the brands they love and also discover new ones, all in one seamless experience."
While Spring is not the first Pinterest-like shopping app, it is the first to make the process easy. Apps like Wanelo, which shows stunning images, and Loverly, which is a wedding shopping app, have been around for longer than Spring, but neither allows users to purchase items in one swipe.
