The quest has just begun for one Israeli startup that has created an innovative online community for shoppers seeking fashion, beauty and home products.
The company, with.love, based in Tel Aviv, was started by two believers – one Israeli and one Dutch – who developed a social network for people seeking to purchase specific items. The goal of with.love is to help people find the items they are searching for in the shortest amount of time.
“We are connecting people to online stores, but in a unique way,” Benjamin Siegal, CEO and co-founder of with.love, told Kehila News Israel (KNI). “You want it? We find it, with love!”
When you want to buy something, but can’t find it online or don’t even know how to begin the search, with.love does the sleuthing for you.
“To begin a product quest, simply share a picture of the item you are interested in buying on with.love. You can snap a picture, take a screenshot or import it from Pinterest, Instagram or the web,” Siegal explained. “Then just sit back, relax, and let with.love do the searching for you.”
with.love employs its own unique method of finding products, with a community of experts, bloggers, and industry influencers, who scour the web for products and where they can be purchased. When the product quest is complete, its originator receives a notification and a link to the online store where the product can be purchased.
“The concept is designed to save hours of Internet searching for shoppers-on-a-mission”, Siegal said. “Many people spot items they wish to purchase while browsing on Pinterest and Instagram, from wedding dresses to sofas. But with no way of knowing the brands of these goods, these potential shoppers have little success in locating where these items can be bought. with.love aims to locate items otherwise difficult to unearth.”
For example, when Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, sports a new outfit, fashionistas are atwitter finding out the designer and where they can buy it, or a knockoff. Fashion experts likely already know. with.love gives fans access to this expert knowledge all the way from identifying the label to the point of purchase.
“We have bloggers and designers who are in tune with fashion,” Benjamin said. “They are like car enthusiasts – fashion fanatics know exactly how to identify and find specific items.”
Starting a quest is free and isn’t limited to the item itself.
“When you start a product quest you can put criteria on the price and even ask for fashion tips, such as ‘what pants go with this shirt?’” Siegal said.
Beyond that, with.love provides enthusiasts a place to discover niche or trending products from around the world. Members can browse other quests and make purchases on those too, not just their own. Brands benefit by seeing what products are in demand; stores benefit from increased traffic; and, with an exclusive feature of with.love, Instagram influencers (users with 10,000 or more followers) can transform their static feeds by adding an e-commerce element to their profiles.
Bob Singor, CTO and co-founder, explained how with.love’s concept enables shoppers to push past clutter on the web and focus on their own interests.
“We want to empower people to find exactly what they want, need and love, when they want it,” he said. “The product they love may be from a tiny, independent store that very few people know about, but someone in the with.love community will know. It’s like having a personal product detective working for you.”
Siegal, born in Jerusalem, specializes in business development, strategy and IT management, while Singor, born in the Netherlands, specializes in software development, cyber security and Big Data. The two worked together at Vision for Israel, a humanitarian aid organization in Israel. Their individual expertise provided a natural blend to start a company in the high tech field with goals to maintain high moral standards and deliver products that help people, Siegal said.
“We didn’t know exactly the direction back then, but that it would be in the high-tech world,” Siegal said, adding that the duo wants to ”sow back into the believing community and build a company that is a blessing to many.”
The startup is currently relying on word-of-mouth marketing before introducing more sweeping launches and a mobile application. A slow initial rollout has been met with positive feedback.
Siegal invites anyone to sign up for a free account and begin their own quests or help others fulfill theirs. Love, Siegal said, is a meaningful and positive emotion, hence the name.
“We wanted people to help each other, with love,” he said.
The website is simply, with.love.
with.love is currently looking for a second round of investors. For inquiries, contact the company at [email protected].