Creating Unforgettable Brand Experiences Online and Beyond
Tictail was founded in 2012. At the time, the founders, Carl Waldencranz, Siavash Ghorbani, Birk Nilsson, and Kaj Drobin, envisioned a platform that would help creative entrepreneurs in fashion, home decor, and other creative industries, build an easy to use, beautiful online store as a step toward making their online brands global. The need was clearly there; the company quickly grew to have a customer base of tens of thousands of brands from over 140 countries. Today Tictail has evolved to where it is not only a platform for small businesses, but a shopping destination for individuals from all over the world who are interested in supporting independent design; you can find over four million products on Tictail.com. The style could be described as more professional and up-market than Etsy, but with a platform that is more social, noticable, and personalized than Shopify. Browsing Tictail you will find everything from minimalist Finnish cashmere knitwear, opulently styled Parisian shoes, and esoteric Spanish home decor.
” Discovery and personalization are key factors […] and although an individual can dig and dig on their own, there is always something rewarding about leveraging the advice of friends and influential voices.”
One aspect that sets Tictail apart from other similar platforms is the social functionality; it has been called ”Tumblr for retail,” which seems like a natural progression given the way our human inclination to be social has been amplified in the digital age. Tictail has shopper profiles where users can find new products as well as share their favorite finds with their friends. Tictail Talk lets brands and shoppers talk directly via the Tictail app, something that is intended to approximate the in-person experience of a small boutique.
”Tictail helps make shopping feel rewarding, by learning about how one purchase could help put dinner on the table for a young artist or fledgling fashion designer.”
”Discovery and personalization are key factors,” Waldencranz says. Tictail is intended as a marketplace where users can discover the favorite brands of tomorrow. For those who like to shop emerging design, ”there is always an element of finding brands before they get huge. Pair that with Tictail’s global reach, and shoppers now have online access to discovering amazing small business owners in cities they have never even traveled to. And although an individual can dig and dig on their own, there is always something rewarding about leveraging the advice of friends and influential voices.”
Tictail also lets shoppers feel something that often gets lost in today’s online economies of scale: A personal connection with makers and business owners. ”We recently launched a campaign called Not Faceless, which was all about educating shoppers on the benefits of supporting small business owners by shopping slow fashion. Tictail helps make shopping feel rewarding, by learning about how one purchase could help put dinner on the table for a young artist or fledgling fashion designer.”
Last year, Tictail also opened a brick-and-mortar store on New York’s Lower East Side: Tictail Market. There, fans of the online experience, as well as curious passers-by, can congregate to shop and experience the brand in-person, and avail themselves to various non-commercial goings-on. ”We make sure to have events in the store as much as we can, sometimes twice a week. Whether it’s a brand trunk show, female entrepreneurship panel, or press event for an upcoming collection, we’re constantly bringing new people into the space to get to know the Tictail brand,” says Waldencranz.
Carl Waldekranz
CEO, Tictail