Wanelo is a company founded by the CEO, Deena Varshavskaya, in 2012. Wanelo is a digital mall where people can explore and purchase items through the web. The CEO states that she founded the company after being frustrated by the lack of a platform with unique items. The company’s slogan is “The digital mall on your phone” and that is exactly what Wanelo is. Wanelo focuses on fashion products. It is a social platform where consumers have access to over 12 million products from over 300,000 stores. The site has 11 million users as of 2014. The majority of users are women, but the percentage of male users is slowly increasing. “I can always find so many different things & most of the time they have at least a few things that drops within the category.” said an avid user of Wanelo.
There is one company that stands out as a major competitor to Wanelo. This company is called Etsy. Founded in 2005 by Robert Kalin, Chris Maguire, Haim Schoppik, Jared Tarbell, Etsy is a peer-to-peer e-commerce website that sells unique items and supplies. The online marketplace has 54 million users as of 2014 with 1.4 million sellers. In 2014 Etsy genereated a revenue of $195.6 million. Etsy allows users to create their own shops and sell items. The site charges the seller $.20 for each listing on the seller’s page. Etsy has items available from Art, Home Décor to Jewlery and Clothing.
Wanelo and Etsy have many similarities and differences. Although the two companies are similar, one difference is that Etsy focuses on homemade and vintage products, while Wanelo is open to retailers and brands such as Abercrombie & Fitch. The difference in product focus could be a reason why some consumers choose one company over the other. For example, users looking for an antique piece of home décor may lean towards Etsy, while a user looking for a new pair of jeans from a specific brand may lean towards Wanelo. However, users looking for a simple leather jacket have a good chance at finding that item at both Etsy and Wanelo. Another difference is that Etsy users have the ability to buy and sell items, while Wanelo users are more focused on buying rather than selling.
Wanelo and Etsy are similar because they have the same idea of selling unique and vintages items through a virtual platform. Etsy is a company on a much larger scale, having been around for 12 years and is often compared to sites such as Amazon. Both companies have mobile applications that are easily accessible to consumers.
Photo Credit: blog.wanelo.com, etsy.com, influenster.com
The Digital Mall - "Want, Need, Love" 