Social commerce… While the term was coined by VC David Beisel, it is Steve Rubel who brought a comprehensive definition to the new trend:
Social commerce can take several forms, but in sum it means creating places where people can collaborate online, get advice from trusted individuals, find goods and services and then purchase them. It shrinks the research and purchasing cycle by creating a single destination powered by the power of many.
The VC and the Blogger sketched the main lines of social commerce back in those days. It’s important to notice that while we witness an evolution of social commerce today, we don’t particularly see that “single destination powered by the power of many”. Or don’t we? Balaji Sundararajan is the Founder and CEO of Bravisa, a social commerce site. Bravisa’s role in the social commerce landfill is to provide products for individual retailers at wholesale price.
The process is dead simple: sign-up – product selection (from over 80 suppliers) – price tagging – store creation – product promotion through widgets, partner sites, written reviews – a 10-minute process max. Retailers don’t need to spend a dime to sell products through Bravisa. Online sellers choose the profit margin they wish to make on the product they sell. Bravisa handles payment processes, shipping, and customer service.
Bravisa’s main competition is Zlio. The main difference between the two is that Zlio’s products are from the Amazon store feed. since Zlio is the middlemen between a retailer and a re-seller, profit margins are smaller. Bravisa gets its stuff directly from wholesalers, which is a huge difference for small individual retailers.
So far, the product selection for individual sellers on Bravisa is not extraordinary. I would even say I was disappointed to see the wholesale store filled with pillows, candles and digital picture frames. Not very exciting products. But Bravisa is young and has a great vision in mind: Becoming the back-end engine of all social commerce transactions. Balaji Sundararajan’s strategy is to grow through partnerships to acquire new retailers (example), and therefore negotiate more deals with more whole sellers. And quite frankly, after talking with Balaji, I have total confidence in Bravisa’s achievement of their goal.
More info about Bravisa:
Bravisa E-store: The Good, The Bad, And The Very Good – Online Business Review
Boosting Bravisa – Selling Products Without Owning – Startup Booster
Bravisa – Another Online Shop – Problogger
Bravisa – Make money with your own online store – howtomarketyourstuff.com