ShopforBags.com, which sells handbags and fashion accessories wholesale to more than 10,000 stores, is taking a first step into mobile commerce with Corduro Inc., a mobile payments and mobile shopping mall company.
ShopforBags.com will be featured in Corduro’s PayMobile shopping app, where the wholesaler will be selling to retailers. Only registered users of ShopforBags.com—resellers with a tax identification number—can make ShopforBags.com purchases using the Corduro app.
Using the Corduro mobile app is the same for businesses or consumers. Users download the app for their iOS or Android devices, and once they create a Corduro account they can shop participating merchants in the app.
The first step is for the consumer to add a payment card or bank account information to their Corduro digital wallet. To purchase an item a shopper must make ShopforBags.com a favorite merchant in the app, which is stored in a section called Passions. From there the shopper selects the merchant, then the Actions button to open a grid displaying several options, including Pay.
Using Corduro simplifies ShopforBags.com’s entry into mobile commerce, says Katy Messersmith, ShopforBags.com president. “They are connecting our products into their mobilized shopping cart, eliminating our potential need for a web-based mobile experience,” she says.
The Corduro app also has a community section in which consumers can invite others to connect and receive invitations themselves. They can share special offers and purchases with each other. Consumers also can connect their Facebook and Twitter accounts to their Corduro accounts.
“It enables us to build deeper, direct and real-time conversations with customers, and enables our most passionate supporters to invite their network into our community giving us a network effect and complete visibility to the influence of not just one to one, but one to many,” says Messersmith.
On another front, merchants can use the app to accept payments. Corduro offers a mobile card reader that attaches to a smartphone’s headphone jack.
Corduro is different from competitors like Square Inc. and Intuit Inc. by virtue of its social connections, says Robert Ziegler, Corduro CEO. ShopforBags.com will be able to see which shoppers are influencing others to make purchases, he says.
Corduro charges merchants a per-transaction fee that includes the interchange rate for the payment card plus 1%, Ziegler says. Interchange rates are the fees credit-card issuing banks charge retailers for each credit card transaction. Merchants pay no monthly fees, he says.
ShopforBags.com also operates a consumer e-commerce site, KatydidCollection.com, but it is not part of the effort with Corduro. ShopforBags.com also invested an undisclosed amount in Corduro.
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