DALLAS & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Joinem (http://www.joinem.com/), the first community-powered digital retailer to monetize the full potential of social commerce, today announced the company has raised $5 million in investment funding and officially launched its public site. Early investors in the company include principals of nine hedge/venture funds, as well as two senior members of Facebook’s executive team.
Joinem is at the convergence of three powerful trends: mobile, the sharing economy, and ecommerce. The meteoric growth of smartphones in tandem with consumers’ growing comfort with digital payment systems and social networking has created an environment where sharing – ideas, experiences, products and savings opportunities– has become intuitive. With cost savings delivered through collaborative buying, Joinem is the brand new way to shop for the sharing economy.
By leveraging the sharing behaviors inherent in social media, Joinem serves as a mechanism to share products with friends online and influence digital purchasing decisions. Joinem’s core proposition is WePower™ group buying and savings – the special guaranteed savings of up to 25 percent off the lowest online prices on thousands of leading brands when the target number of shoppers join group purchases, or “Buys.” For every product, Joinem scans online mega-retailers such as Amazon, Walmart.com, Target.com and BestBuy.com to identify the lowest price online and delivers guaranteed savings below that lowest price in real-time.
Joinem boosts WePower by using its proprietary smart data technology to find like-minded shoppers to join Buys. Also, each customer can fill out a personal social profile to enhance product discovery and receives a personalized referral URL to share with their social networks. Customers will be awarded $5 in Joinem Bucks credit for every referral who makes a purchase from Joinem.
Market Opportunity
In late May 2014, Joinem conducted an extensive online survey of 4,300 Millennials and GenX digital shoppers. The pre-launch research projects the Joinem initial user base at 30-50 million, with target customer penetration as high as the second most frequently shopped retail site.
In November 2014, to reaffirm its business model and improve the overall customer experience, Joinem conducted a closed test of its beta site. The results not only confirmed the strong appeal of its WePower group buying and savings proposition, but also the appeal of Joinem’s product array and shopping platform. Key insights from the November beta release include:
- 66 percent of beta testers said that they would definitely/probably open an account with Joinem.
- 78 percent said they would definitely/probably participate in a group Buy.
- More than 70 percent said they would recommend Joinem to a friend or colleague.
- 68 percent said they would invite others to join the Buy with posts on social media.
In addition to offering customers guaranteed savings on their favorite brands, the Joinem social commerce platform provides significant benefits to participating vendors. Sellers receive guaranteed demand at the pre-established price they choose, and, by facilitating a direct sale between the vendor and the customer, Joinem enables vendors to disintermediate additional supply chain and promotional costs. Sellers can also leverage valuable social insights on who is buying their products to generate new product activity and better target prospective and current customers.
The business is fully staffed with experienced retail and digital commerce veterans and is led by Rick Braddock, Executive Chairman, and Darren Waxman, CEO and Co-Founder. Rick Braddock was the former Chairman/CEO of Priceline.com; former Global President of Citicorp; former CEO and Chairman of FreshDirect LLC, and chairman of several high-growth businesses in the social commerce, Big Data, mobile payment and analytics space.
“Now deeply entrenched into our social and economic fabric, social media has transformed from a networking and communications resource to a powerful and unprecedented means of influence,” said Rick Braddock. “Similar to Priceline, Joinem offers a new digital buying and selling paradigm which, I predict, will lead the social commerce retail space. Across industries, traditional retailers and service providers are being disrupted by the new sharing economy; as such, the digital retail sector is still wide open for innovation. Joinem’s addressable market is the two billion consumers on social networks. By leveraging the sharing behavior and multiplier effect of social networking, Joinem’s market potential is projected up to $58 billion.”
Darren Waxman, Joinem CEO, added, “By disrupting the traditional retail shopping model and capitalizing on key trends, Joinem is creating a breakthrough way to shop for today’s new community-driven consumer.”
To sign up for a free Joinem account, please visit www.joinem.com and watch the video to learn more about how you can join forces with friends and other savvy shoppers to lock in guaranteed savings off the lowest online prices on your favorite brands.
About Joinem
Joinem is the first community-powered digital retailer to monetize the potential of social commerce. Joinem’s core proposition is WePower™ group buying and savings – the special guaranteed savings of up to 25 percent off the lowest online prices on thousands of leading brands, when the target number of shoppers buy together. By combining its patent-pending collaborative purchase technology platform, strong sourcing network and vendor relationships, and insights from Big Data, Joinem is the brand new way to shop for the sharing economy. To learn more please visit www.joinem.com.
