‘Tumblr of e-commerce’ Tictail launches a consumer app for one-of-a-kind items from 55,000 stores

If you love nothing more than shopping for one-of-a-kind products from indie retailers, you might like Tictail’s new app for iOS.

We last caught up with the Swedish e-commerce startup back in February, just as it was launching in the States in the wake of a $8 million Series A round.

To recap, Tictail sells itself, so to speak, as a simple DIY solution for online stores. So it’s not a retailer itself – it’s more of a “Tumblr of e-commerce,” as it’s previously been described, delivering an easy-to-use platform for building virtual stores.

However, with the launch of its first dedicated mobile app, Tictail is taking a slightly different approach, focusing on the consumer market itself. It aggregates its customers under one roof, letting you search for – and buy – from a myriad of boutiques and brands. Kind of like Etsy, or perhaps even Fab, but for everything.

Tictail toe

The app features a hand-picked category of products, covering male/female focused attire, accessories, jewelry, furniture and more. Tap your category, swipe horizontally through the retailers therein, and tap ‘Like’ to save your top items to your profile. Over time, Tictail will recommend things it thinks you will approve of, based on the brands you follow and items you’ve liked.

All the items have localized pricing too, which is massively helpful in making this concept scale globally. And the cherry on the cake is that the price you see, is the price you pay – shipping is included.

Based on our tests, Tictail is on to a real winner here, as it pulls some fairly unique retailers together into a single digital mall, throws a pinch of e-commerce into the mix, and voila. It’s pretty slickly designed too, though it’s a shame it’s not optimized for iPads at the moment.

There are somewhere in the region of 1.5 million items for sale from across 150 countries, so there is a lot of stuff on here. We’re also told that an Android incarnation is on the cards at some point, but no timescale has been given.

Tictail is available to download from the App Store now.

➤ Tictail | App Store