Dive Brief:

• Basic.Space, a membership-based online marketplace featuring vintage and new merchandise, launched digital storefronts that allow consumers to shop for products featured in photos and livestreams of creatives, the startup announced on Monday.

• Members of the platform receive a membership card with a QR code directing them to their own page on the site and revealing online storefronts and experiences, the company said. Their profile pages are also customized based on the information the platform collects during the onboarding process.

• Tennis star Naomi Osaka will host the first digital storefront debut featuring face masks she designed with her sister, Mari, and the proceeds from their mask sales will go toward UNICEF. For the next 12 months, Basic.Space is also giving 1% of its profits to the +Me Project, a Los Angeles-based organization which teaches the art of storytelling to middle and high school students, according to the company statement.

Dive Insight:

With its online storefronts, Basic.Space seeks to recreate the discovery and human aspect of in-store shopping that's absent from online browsing, the company noted in its announcement. Its launch falls in line with other platforms, including Verishop and Amazon, which have recently expanded their own digital store experiences for brands.

From a broader perspective, the Basic.Space platform reflects the increasing importance of digital channels as customers stay home more due to the pandemic. As a result, this year has seen the acceleration of some digital trends as brands and third-party providers innovate to provide customers with new ways to shop, and brands with more channels to reach them through. Livestreaming is one of the channels that has benefited from the store closures, and customer reluctance to head into physical stores even once they reopened.

Basic.Space's partnerships with charities also follows in the footsteps of other brands like Patagonia and Nike that have embraced advocacy amid the COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest unfolding in the U.S. and globally. Naomi Osaka in particular recently made headlines for her masks showing support for the Black Lives Matter movement.