Dive Brief:
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E-gifting startup Loop Commerce has garnered $16 million in new investment funding, the company said Tuesday.
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The startup has entered the e-commerce gifting space by allowing recipients to weigh in on their size and style preferences of the gifts before the purchase is made.
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Retailers have found that the service hones gift-buying and has not just helped to cut down on returns, but has also actually encouraged purchases of items, like shoes or cosmetics, that can be especially difficult to pick out for someone else and so aren’t usually bought as gifts.
Dive Insight:
Loop Commerce has found a little bit of space in gift-buying that has been fairly untapped, for good reason. While buying a friend a shirt or a sweater may work because there’s a bit of wiggle room when estimating her size, buying shoes or say, lipstick, is next to impossible.
Both of those items for many people still need to be tried on in store or through generous free shipping/free return e-commerce policies. But retailers have found that Loop Commerce has added to the types of items sold for gifts. It remains to be seen how much growth there is here. It’s a disruption of how people view gift-buying and gift-getting — it can be awkward to specify what you want in a gift, outside of wedding registries and the like. But if gift getters loosen up enough, there’s clearly potential here.
