Kyle
While most online shopping sites would die at the thought of having one singular customer, a new Boston startup called Nyopoly prides itself on making customers feel that way. Nyopoly is a new online shopping site that pairs consumers who like high fashion, chic, luxury items with retailers. From there the customer negotiates one on one with the seller for the best possible price. Nyopoly’s co-founder Joe Shartzer tells us that it’s this one one one negotiating that led to the name Nyopoly.
Shartzer tells us that Nyopoly’s process is easy and natural because it occurs between a single buyer and seller.
Nyopoly brings their members curated, trendy must have accessories, jewelry, watches, handbags and a more. Their site is going through a major remodel which will reopen on November 5th. They’ll be adding women’s fashion to their totally redesigned site.
We got a chance to talk with Shartzer, who is the company’s marketing guru. Check out the interview below.
What is Nyopoly?
Nyopoly is an unique members-only shopping experience, where every price is personal. With Nyopoly, you negotiate (haggle) your price on fresh and fabulous finds in fashion, getting coveted styles on your terms. Nyopoly’s approach drives the highest fair price, is completely non-competitive, and is remarkably natural process between a single buyer and single seller. Nyopoly is variable pricing, at scale, based on consumer willingness.
Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?
Shawn Harris, CEO & Founder
Started a retail luxury menswear business, ECC Life and Style, and has worked and consulted to global retailers including TJX, Staples, and BJ’s. Built first-of-its-kind cloud based design for manufacturing startup in the electronics industry, sold to IBM. MBA from Babson College and B.S. degree from UMASS in MIS.
Dr. Tak-Sang Chan, CTO & Co-Founder
Grew and led top talent Upromise engineering teams.Skills to grow company by building and leading top-performing engineering teams to deliver robust, scalable and extensible technology solutions.Ph.D. in Engineering from Northwestern University and B.S. degree from National Taiwan University.
Joe Shartzer, Director of Marketing and Community & Co-Founder
Built and led a digital marketing agency, Sharenext Media.Consulted to global branded offerings from The New York Times, Williams-Sonoma, Planet Fitness.B.S. in Marketing and Management from University of New Hampshire.
Where are you based?
Nyopoly is based out of Boston, MA.
What’s the startup scene/culture like where you’re based?
Boston’s got a great startup scene – lots of hustle, lots of action. We’re trying to kickstart the consumer internet space.
How did you come up with the idea for Nyopoly?
Prior to founding Nyopoly, Shawn Harris started ECC Life and Style, a menswear clothing company. It was there Shawn realized that current pricing trends – massive discounts, little personalization, were not sustainable, fair deals for both sides. It was from that problem that Nyopoly was started.
How did you come up with the name?
Nyopoly come from the concept of negotiating your price.
What problem does Nyopoly solve?
The biggest hurdle to making ecommerce truly personalized is traditional flat pricing; different buyers value the same products differently, making a single price for many buyers inefficient. Shoppers used to haggle on products, finding a personal price point that was win-win for both the buyer and the seller. This system worked beautifully – why not in ecommerce? What if every online shopper could negotiate their price?
What’s your secret sauce?
The Nyopoly pricing algorithm allows us to tell our shoppers within seconds whether or not their offer has been accepted or counter-offered. The uniqueness of the pricing negotiation is a new, natural experience for our customers.
What’s one dilemma you’ve encountered in the startup process?
Every startup is strapped for resources initially, so we had to decide how much to build and execute pre-funding. We’re excited about having built a fully functional, sourced and secure ecommerce site on a bootstrapped budget.
What’s one challenge you’ve overcome in the startup process?
Curating the most fabulous finds in fashion is the most important deliverable for our shoppers, so we’ve worked hard over the last year to build relationships with the right brands and manufacturers to make sure we offer only the best in women’s fashion.
What’s the first thing you would do for Nyopoly with a one million dollar investment?
Any fundraising would go toward growing and supporting our technical team and backend, building our brand partnerships, and marketing.
What’s next for Nyopoly?
We’re relaunching Nyopoly on 11/5/2012, complete with a redesigned shopping experience and the latest styles in women’s fashion.
Linkage:
Check out Nyopoly here and get an invite for their grand re-opening here
