TechCrunch
Now With 10M Users, Wanelo Adds Search And ‘Stories' To Its Hot Social Shopping App
Today Wanelo, the online platform that lets people discover and share things they “want, need, and love,” issued an update to its iOS app that brings two handy new features, search and “stories,” to its mobile shopping experience.
In general, Wanelo has emerged as a powerful player in the social shopping place since it launched back in 2010 — I’m told that Wanelo’s user count just passed the 10 million mark, which reflects nearly 70 percent growth in the past five months alone. The app’s core demographic, young fashion-savvy females, is certainly one of the most lucrative target markets out there — which may be why more than 200,000 stores have added their products to the Wanelo platform.
So this morning, I swung by Wanelo’s San Francisco headquarters to speak with founder and CEO Deena Varshavskaya about all the recent growth and get a hands-on look at the new mobile features.
The search feature is pretty self-explanatory — it lets users look for specific items, such as “black dress” or “pointed toe heels” — across the shops that they follow and the entire Wanelo platform. The “Stories” feature lets users create select and group together products and tie them all together with a short written explanation. It’s a nice addition, as it will let Wanelo users flex their editorial muscles and highlight certain trends.
Wanelo is certainly in a competitive space, as everyone from Pinterest to Polyvore to Vogue is working to be the go-to destination for stylish women with disposable income to burn. Varshavskaya says that Wanelo is set apart from the others in part because of the no-nonsense way that it facilitates shopping’s bottom line: actually buying stuff. “All the problems we’re solving are around shopping,” she says. “There are plenty of platforms… where you can see lots of images. But Wanelo is where you shop.”
VMware's Cloud And The Fit With IT, Cloud Foundry And OpenStack
VMware announced general availability of VMware vSphere 5.5 and VMware vCloud Suite at VMworld today. The new version of its virtualization technology includes the integration of Cloud Foundry, the platform-as-a-service that is now part of Pivotal, which spun out from VMware parent company EMC.
Cloud Foundry used to be VMware’s crown jewel. But now it will work as a platform that Pivotal will build for VMware to integrate with its new cloud, vCloud Hybrid Services. Dubbed Pivotal CF, the service will be made available later this year on VMware vSphere and vCloud Hybrid Services. vSphere is designed as an enhanced set of virtualization-management tools for cloud computing. vCloud Suite manages vSphere to help companies pool resources for more elasticity.
Gelsinger highlighted vSphere 5.5 as part of the company’s overall strategy to be the leader in what it calls the “software defined data center.” vSphere 5 represents the compute aspect of the architecture. Its new virtual storage will be wrapped into its newly introduced “virtual SAN.” The networking is embodied in NSX, the new network hypervisor it launched today. The concept is to pool the resources and leverage cloud when need be.
The new versions of the vSphere Suite and vCloud are designed to integrate with VMware’s vCloud Hybrid Services, an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) play that will get investment with new data centers in California, Virginia and later in Dallas. Managed hosting service Savvis will also work with VMware closely in its vCloud Hybrid Services.
VMware will focus on the deep integration between a customer’s data centers and the VMware hybrid cloud, all running on its virtualization technology. The company is not providing compatibility with Amazon Web Services (AWS), which means that customers are forced to work pretty much entirely with VMware if they go with the full integration. That’s handy for the VMware customer that simply wants to connect to a VMware external service. But even if they do, customers will not get the rock-bottom pricing that comes with a service like AWS. VMware has not announced pricing but they have maintained it would not be as low as AWS.
VMware appears to be putting more of a bet on OpenStack, which is now supported in vSphere and can be integrated with Nicira, which is heavily invested as a contributor in the open cloud movement.
One VMware executive at a press conference compared OpenStack to buying a home theater system. A customer can buy the VMware package deal that comes with vSphere and vCloud’s hybrid integration or they can use the OpenStack framework with VMware technology.
There are a number of customers who are starting to build out on OpenStack. Cloud Foundry has some general acceptance in the market, but none of this is plug-and-play which benefits the consultants most of all.
Apple's iPhone Trade-in Program Is Already Being Piloted, Here's How It Works
Apple is about to introduce an iPhone trade-in program that will allow users to walk into a Retail store and trade up from an old model to a new one. We’ve heard some interesting details about the way that the program will work, and indeed, is working right now in some pilot Apple Stores.
The program, has gotten a bit of press today, with Macrumors‘ Eric Slivka reporting that the training for the program is underway and Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac quoting a start date sometime in September.
But the trade-in program is actually already being piloted in some Apple stores, we’ve discovered. Those stores aren’t just preparing internally for an eventual program, they’ve been offering trade-ins to customers for several weeks. According to a source, this program was presented to them as something that may not be available at every Retail Store. Some of these pilot stores have been processing ‘multiple’ trade-ins a day at this point.
The program works like this. A customer brings a working, non-liquid-damaged iPhone into an Apple Retail Store. It’s then evaluated by an employee with the help of an online site that an employee can access using the store’s iMacs or iPads. The customer then answers a series of questions about the condition of the device in order to determine a value.
This procedure is similar to the way that Apple handles its iPhone recycling program now, but that is by mail only, covers a wide variety of products and is not offered in-store. If a customer wishes to trade in an old broken device for which there is no monetary value, they can do so as a simple recycle.
Values can range depending on a variety of factors, including device color, physical damage and liquid damage. Though the prices could very well be tweaked before the program goes wide, the range is said to be around $120-200 for 16GB iPhone 4 and 4S models. A 16GB iPhone 5 in good condition could go for around $250, less than is being offered by some of the other trade-in sites like Gazelle, Glyde or NextWorth.
Still the in-store convenience of the program could definitely offer the advantage here. Being able to walk in and get the deal done instead of mailing it off and waiting is powerful.
Once the paperwork is done, the value is added to a gift card. The balance is applied to a new device, and the customer keeps the gift card if there’s money left over. The store keeps the old phone. The trade-in program is only applicable if you’re in the store to get a new phone, so you can’t just trade it for a gift card.
That value can be used in credit for a new device but only if the customer has an upgrade credit available. So there is a carrier check involved. If a user does not have an upgrade credit, they could presumably pay the early termination fee of their carrier and use the credit towards a new device on another carrier.
Currently, the devices are dropped into a bag and presumably shipped off elsewhere, likely emerging markets, for refurbishment and resale. They are not resold at the store where the trade-ins are being offered. So far, customers have been pretty excited that this option is now available at Apple Retail stores.
Obviously, this is how the pilot program is working, there could be some details that change between now and when it’s set to go live. We’ll let you know if anything material changes. We’ve reached out to Apple for comment on the new program, but have not heard back.
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