Melanie Mohr is a woman on a mission to fix shopping. "It's broken and it doesn't work for the next wave", she told me at Slush in Helsinki. Recently pushing out a global beta, the Founder of the new shopping app YEAY (pron: yay") is rewriting the script for the next generation of shoppers. And boy does Gen Z shop; 200% more on mobile than the previous generation Y per data from ShareThrough. The global m-commerce arena will reach $600 billion in 2019 which equates to 200% faster growth that e-commerce (per Coupofy data).
YEAY encapsulates three core areas that are critical to the success of shopping apps that few companies ever fully master. Branding, broadcasting and buying. Aiming to appeal to the Snapchat generation and those after it, YEAY has an intuitive design and a compelling proposition whatever level you choose to use the app at. You never need to create an account but +25% are doing so organically.
The app itself is very Snapchat-esque with flowing video, fun snippets and a lively vibe. Once you are inside the app the user can browse or choose to sell an item he/she owns. Uploading items takes a staggeringly short 20 seconds but there is also a full CMS for corporate sellers who will sell multiple items and lines. The interesting part of all this commerce is that YEAY doesn't intend to take commission from C2C clients (that's you and me), whereas businesses are charged 10-15% commission but the beauty of YEAY is that it doesn't have to rely on sales commission because the business opens up the option for other revenue streams: related articles, sponsored content, ads etc."
An example of a professional seller is the award-winning, ex-Sex and the City costume designer, Patricia Fields who is selling through her channel garners of $500 and upwards: "I discovered YEAY a few weeks ago when I was in Berlin presenting a Runway show of my ArtFashion collection. I was impressed with the idea and thought it would be a great adjunct to my already established website. I am expecting YEAY to develop into something exciting as their method of video usage is a very positive step in my experience with my e-commerce."
YEAY ISN'T YOUR AVERAGE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE
On the platform, the videos that users (and brands) create feel the way a recommendation does; fun, creative and honest. Users can use static shots, text, emoji and video to get their message across. Beyond this, YEAY is an impressive selling portal with a key difference, it is a low, medium and high-level marketplace. You could sell your yacht for $25,000,000. There is no upper limit. Beyond this, YEAY demonstrate an understanding of good content - a key for the target audience. If a girl who wants to sell her guitar does so and sings a great song while doing so, the video still gets shown to users, the ability to sell it again is simply removed - something that will interest brands.
YEAY has a bright future, already seeing impressive organic growth and significant attention from big companies that have asked to remain private for now (trust me when I say they're the big boys and the level of attention is unusual, to say the least). While it would be remiss to say other apps are not trying to figure out selling, YEAY has a unique selling proposition having learned from big players and also . It better do, Mohr wants to hit 5m unique users by the end of 2017.
YEAY isn't without issue, besides from the large competitor set, there's also the issue of being a global seller, taxes, shipping and customer service will all be challenges that will require some investment. Mohr believes they are well placed to overcome such issues as they continue to grow and - like larger players like Facebook - rely on users to flag inappropriate content and police the platform. Based on current projections Mohr is on track to get her desired 4m users by end of 2017.
THE FUTURE OF INFLUENCER SHOPPING IS ABOUT TO BE TURNED ON ITS HEAD
Mohr also took me through some exciting new developments that pertain to an arena I have a huge issue with - influencer marketing. The elements are exciting and are ready to go but will be rolled out once the 100,000 users are bedded in. "Early 2017...maybe" says a smiling Mohr.
YEAY is available to download now on Android and iOS (and also works on desktop).
