This article was published on November 26, 2012

TaskRabbit, One Kings Lane, Fab, and others team up to create a Cyber Monday holiday marketplace


TaskRabbit, One Kings Lane, Fab, and others team up to create a Cyber Monday holiday marketplace

Cyber Monday” is here and for those waiting to find great deals online need not wait any longer. Already, comScore reported that more people have shopped online than ever before, with sales topping $1 billion.

Today holds a great deal of importance to many other companies besides Amazon, Target, Walmart, Apple, and eBay because they’re part of the growing segment of the retail industry where more shoppers can find what they want that is cheaper, faster, and more convenient.

Your one-stop e-commerce shop

For the venture capitalist firm, First Round Capital, finding ways to help e-Commerce companies succeed is important to it. That’s why this year, the firm has created its Cyber Monday Gifts Site designed to help provide consumers with a one-stop website that will share all the special deals at some of the Internet’s hottest e-Commerce startups. Nearly two dozen companies are listed, ranging from Birchbox to Hotel Tonight, TaskRabbit to Grubwithus, Sincerely to One Kings Lane, and many more.

On this site, customers can find specials for some of their favorite e-Commerce websites. Not all of them are exclusive to “Cyber Monday” and will run throughout the holiday season. Simply navigate through this simple one-page site and select a company that has a deal. A pop-up card will appear to reveal the discount along with any rules/stipulations. Customers can tweet or Like the deal to share with their friends.

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For First Round Capital, creating this site was another “unique way” for it to help their companies “tell their stories and reach new customers”. Its portfolio is filled with dozens of e-commerce startups that have exploded onto the scene, all of which have gone to raise over $350 million in “follow on capital” and stand to do big business this holiday season. Through this Gifts Site, the hope is that its companies will succeed in what has typically been a quarter for e-Commerce and retail companies need to either break even or reap a profit.

With the holiday season already seeing a great deal of increased activity over previous years, the online space is getting increasingly crowded by a lot of services  trying to capitalize on this medium. But while most companies are adding in a traditional shopping cart mechanism to their existing website, there are dozens of other services out there eager to take advantage of their specialities and targeting a very specific community and buying model.

If you have that particular friend or family member who’s particularly difficult to shop for and you can’t normally find it on a traditional site like Amazon or eBay, perhaps looking at one of these niche websites like Fab, Birchbox, Modcloth or any other similar service might help you find the gift you want. First Round looked to make it simple to find all the holiday specials for these popular companies.

A bit hard to find

But while it’s great all of these sites are curated in one place, finding it is going to be rather difficult, especially for those outside of the tech scene — quite honestly, a VC firm’s website isn’t one of the places someone would go to in order to find these great deals.

First Round tells us that the site will be promoted through social media channels like Facebook and Twitter, while also being shared by the individual companies who have huge followings themselves. Additionally, paid channels like display ads, Facebook advertising, etc. will be leveraged to help drive people to the site.

A winner nevertheless?

When it’s all said and done, it looks like these e-Commerce companies could win big in the end. Based on the trends IBM’s Digital Analytics Benchmark revealed after Black Friday, a monumental amount of business could be done by the end of Cyber Monday or even the holiday season.

There are three trends that weight to these companies’ advantage: an increase in mobile purchases, higher usage of the iPad in online shopping, and the effect of social media on sales. The First Round Capital companies have previously incorporated these into their services so it might appear to be good for them.

Photo credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

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