Quick Pitch: Shop and style fashion products with your friends.
Genius Idea: Like going to the mall with your best friend, online.
Sofia Barattieri and Maysoune Ghobash wanted to shop together. The best friends and former shopping buddies had suddenly found themselves on separate parts of the globe, and missed being able to suggest items and get feedback from each other when perusing for clothes and accessories in their favorite stores.
And so they were inspired to launch Motilo in April 2011. The site, which nabbed "Most Innovative Website" at the Guardian Awards for Digital Innovation earlier this year, serves up a feed of fashionable items from retailers like Net-a-Porter and Farfetch, which girls can assemble into outfits, a la Polyvore. While they're browsing, they can chat with their friends to praise a certain blouse, or recommend a different pair of earrings.
When they're finished browsing and styling, users can click through to purchase their looks from their respective retailers.
It's a well-designed site, and a neat solution for those content to shop from the (mostly high-end) retailers included. For those who tend to shop from other retailers -- a Banana Republic, say, or Ann Taylor -- the experience is less seamless; users can still swap links and discuss products, but they will be unable to style items or click to purchase when they're done. As Motilo expands its range of retail partners and its mobile offerings, we can see this improving, however.
Try it for yourself and let us know what you think.
Image courtesy of Flickr, andrewarchy
Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
