Junya Mori
Sumally is a Japanese social network that connects what you love with the people you love. For those not familiar with the service, it allows you to tag items other users have posted with either ‘have’ or ‘want’. If you follow users who tag items similar to those you tag, you can connect with such like-minded people. In this way you can discover things that you might never have seen, but you may be very interested in.
The startup recently started issuing corporate accounts, providing them with its e-commerce related features for free. To date the service has acquired more than 150,000 users. For corporate users, the new membership allows you to use all features for free, including:
- Placing your banner image on the top of their page.
- Uploading your items without tagging ‘want’ or ‘have’.
- Providing a dashboard to register your items on the platform.
- Registering item profiles and images in an Excel file format.
In addition to these features, you will be allowed to apply to building up your own e-shop on the platform. Your shop can be set up upon approval from Sumally. When a user buys your product on the platform, you will need to pay a 5% commission in addition to the payment processing fee.
Since late January when the startup launched full e-commerce operations, it has partnered with more than a few brands and encouraged them to establish official stores on the platform. The introduction of the corporate membership is expected to help on this front.
In a past interview with Wired.jp, the company’s CEO Kensuke Yamamoto said that he was aiming to create a platform that blended social with commerce. Sumally’s recent move makes me feel that it’s definitely heading in that direction.
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