Spring rakes in $65M to fuel mobile commerce efforts

Dive Brief:

Mobile shopping startup Spring has raked in $65 million in a Series C funding round led by Fidelity Investments, an infusion which brings the three-year-old company’s total funding to $100 million, according to Recode.
The round also included existing investors Groupe Arnault, which is the investment arm of luxury fashion conglomerate LVMH; Box Group, which is the venture firm started by Spring co-founder and chairman David Tisch; and Thrive Capital.
The company, which sells clothing from more than 2,000 brands and takes a cut of each sale, plans to put the money toward growing brand partnerships and enhancing customer marketing, among other efforts. Recode reported that Spring expects sales of more than $100 million this year.

Dive Insight:

Those who believe no one is making really big money from mobile shopping yet are quickly being proven wrong by Spring. With $100 million in expected sales this year, the company has figured out how to move the shopping mall to the mobile smartphone.

A lot of Spring's magic appears to be in its ability to allows users to easily scroll through selections of related products from different brands, and it has resonated with Millenials and younger demographic users — which are key to the success of any mobile commerce venture. Don't underestimate the value of ease-of-use, as it's one of the major contributors to a positive shopping experience, and an aspect that has been found lacking from a lot of mobile shopping efforts thus far.

The company also wouldn't be able to give shoppers easy scrolling through loads of products if the brands selling those items didn't like what Spring had to offer. As it is, Spring revenue take on each sale is reported to be 15% to 20%, less than those individual brands might get selling through department stores.

Earlier this week, at the Forrester Research Digital Transformation 2017 conference in Chicago, Andy Hoar, vice president and principal analyst for eBusiness and channel strategy at Forrester, told Retail Dive that a growing number of consumers want to buy direct from brands themselves and that they might even be willing to pay more for the pleasure of doing so and bypassing a traditional retailer. For now, it looks like Spring is giving both brands and consumers what they want.