Scottish company seeks to make online fashion shopping more social

Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - 12:26 by Mike Price

Many people enjoy shopping for clothes on the high street because it gives them the opportunity to go for a day out with friends and get instant reactions to products they are thinking of buying.

It is not entirely easy to replicate this via safe shopping online, because it is of course a relatively solitary practice.

You can send product links to friends if you want to get a second opinion, or check out user reviews, but these features do not necessarily match up to the type of shopping trip you can indulge in on the high street.

The Skinny reports that a start-up e-commerce company based in Edinburgh is looking to change all this by making safe shopping online a little more socially-oriented.

Mallzee has been set up by entrepreneur, Cally Russell and it intends to allow users the opportunity to share the items of clothing they want to buy, so that others can vote on their quality and appropriateness.

The service will also automatically recommend items to consumers based on their preferences and past buying habits, creating a bespoke level of engagement, which could make e-commerce more efficient.

Russell said that she was inspired to start Mallzee after realising that she missed the social elements of shopping for clothes on the high street and thought that this could be translated to the web with a bit of hard work.

Two hundred retailers have already signed up to use the site and Russell is planning to have tens of thousands of consumers harnessing Mallzee by the end of the year, enhancing its influence.

An international launch is also on the cards, which is impressive given that the company is currently made up of just six employees, all of whom are under the age of 30.