Quick Pitch: Moxsie is a community-driven, online shop that crowdsources design input from its users. Today the site is unveiling a partnership with Badgeville, a white-label social rewards and analytics company, to create custom social rewards to stir up even more participation among the Moxsie community.
Genius Idea: Yes, there are a ton of social media-savvy fashion brands out there tapping into community to make product decisions -- Ann Taylor and Levi's spring to mind -- but Moxsie aims to be a one-two punch when it comes to putting power in the hands of the people.
First of all, the site is replete with wares from indie designers, giving folks access to the kind of boutique shopping that may not be available in their hometowns. Secondly, the site takes matters a step further and allows its users to call the shots in many respects. Moxise, with the help of its 115,000-plus-person Twitter feed as well as Ustream, frequently holds what it calls "#BuyerChats," during which followers can give direct feedback and advice to designers who sell on the website. That way, users can do more than just shop -- they can decide what products are actually manufactured.
"Fashion used to be associated with the unattainable," says Moxsie CEO Jon Fahrner. "Moxsie takes an open, inclusive approach where anyone can come to discover their own personal style. And now, with #BuyerChat and Facebook badges, anyone can participate in the process of creating fashion and be rewarded for their insights and ideas. And, now designers who are under-distributed and lack brick-and-mortar stores can get in on the Foursquare-style buzz they’ve been missing."
Fahrner is referring to Moxsie's new Badgeville partnership, which will enable the site to reward active users with badges that can be shared and displayed via their social networks. Now, before you start rolling your eyes over the value of a virtual badge ("Oh, pretty, so what?"), the badge isn't the only thing users will receive. Badges, which will be earned in an incremental fashion (Buyer-In-Training, Head Buyer and Celebrity Buyer, etc.), will also garner users store credit and possibly even internships. There will also be a leaderboard on which users can keep track of their ranking.
"Brands need new ways to engage users through techniques from social interactions and modern loyalty programs," says Kris Duggan, CEO and founder of Badgeville. "As social gaming continues to grow –- commerce is the next frontier."
Although Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley announced that the checkin service would start experimenting with badge rewards back in June, we haven't seen that many instances of badges going hand-in-hand with actual prizes. We're interested to see what this union does in terms of consumer engagement.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, berekin
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