Your makeup is washed out. Your shampoo smells funny. Your favorite video game is four years old. You’re hungry, thirsty, sleepy, bored and the last time your floor was clean, the Olympics were still on TV. All this because you are incapable of taking a good recommendation. Thankfully, there is a new product discovery app, named Influenster, that aims to change the way you look at online shopping. And they just got a huge helping hand.
The popular cash-back shopping website, Ebates, has invested $8 million to close out Influenster’s recent round of funding. This should be the final step in Influenster’s goal of becoming a legitimate threat on the product discovery market. The move also means that Ebates’ vice president, Ken Hirschman, will be joining the board of directors.
“Ebates and Influenster have a unified vision of empowering shoppers with the best incentives, information and deals,” said Ken Hirschman in a statement. “We look forward to working with the team at Influenster to provide shoppers with a richer and deeper online shopping experience.”
The product discovery and review platform gives its 1.7 million trend-setters and savvy shoppers a place to discuss what to buy and where. With nearly 2 million products and over 6 million reviews, there is no shortage of user-generated content for prospective buyers to peruse and consider. They were previously noted as one of several showcasing tech companies that are on the rise.
It was more than important for Influenster to lock down this level of funding now. With an exponentially growing user base and an always increasing product catalog, there was little room in their budget for expansion. But with this assistance from Ebates, they will be able to keep consumers and reviewers happy with a variety of photos, videos, samples and more.
The necessity for this kind of platform is evident to more people than just the big guys at Ebates. Product discovery is more valuable than ever in businesses across the world. E-commerce websites are especially invested in this market, as online shopping catalogs have become so expansive that customers can rarely find what they need.
Every purchase made begins with product discovery. Influenster realized that early on and made it a priority in their business model. And now that e-commerce pioneers like Ebates are taking notice, the business of finding products that are useful and work well might have just gotten a whole lot bigger.