Spring raises 25 million dollars

In August 2014, a mobile app called Spring launched with the help of 7.5 million dollars in venture capital funding, and 150 brands including Warby Parker, Public School, and Opening Ceremony ready to be sold through them. Currently, Spring offers apparel, accessories, etc. from over 700 brands, and has now raised a mind blowing additional 25 million dollars in funding. The recent investors include BoxGroup (a venture capital firm where Spring founding partner David Tisch is a member), Google Ventures, Thrive Capital, Yuri Milner, Groupe Arnault, Ashton Kutcher's Sound Ventures, and the legendary Silas Chou, the businessman who practically made Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger.

Spring was created with the idea that mobile commerce could be the next big thing in digital retail. The idea of downloading individual apps to purchase every different brand seems absolutely ludicrous. So, Spring decided to bring all those brands onto one very convenient platform and make mobile commerce quick and easy.

For those who are hopelessly devoted to one brand, you can follow your favorite brands which link their own sales systems with Spring's backend and push out posts to your feed whenever you want. Tisch told fashionista.com that he's seen two types of shoppers emerge, the browsing shopper who is just checking out what's on the site (the mobile version of the window shopper), and those who come in with the intention of buying, who quickly become repeat shoppers. Tisch suspects that Spring's purchase rate is two and a half times that of a standard e-commerce site.

Is mobile commerce the future of retail?

Spring is obviously and arguably one of the most successful mobile apps businesses around. However, Brands are still trying to figure out the science behind how often they should post, but, as with anything new, there's a period of trial and error as mobile commerce is still very fresh endeavor. As Spring works on learning what works and what doesn't, they are also growing their team.

Their team is currently 48 people, but they are expanding, and they are also putting more money into marketing, which they haven't really done before. Retailers ship their own products, but, Spring is working on handling customer service as well. On Thursday, Spring also launched their Android app.

Mobile commerce could easily be the future of shopping, so retailers should hop on the mobile commerce train ASAP. It's an evolution in fashion, and perfect for the shopper on the go. Of course, nothing can ever quite take away the appeal of actually going shopping, but, we've all been dreaming of a mobile-app like this forever.

Photo: Forbes