Higgle Reinvents Social Commerce For Both Shoppers And Merchants

SAN FRANCISCO, July 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Higgle, the first online marketplace to combine ecommerce, social networking and dynamic pricing has emerged from beta today for its public launch. Co-founded by CEO Lara Aldag, a former technology investment banker, and backed by Dan Quayle, Darryl Berger and other notable investors, Higgle is the first of its kind using social buying to reinvent ecommerce for both shoppers and merchants.

Higgle, taking its name from an old-west offshoot of the term haggle, is distinguished by the way it allows users to create and join offers (higgles) by naming a price on desired products and sharing with like-minded shoppers, either on Higgle or other major social networks. By sharing higgles and getting others to join, shoppers can leverage their influence and networks to get better pricing on products, creating a real-life bargaining experience from the ease of their desktop or mobile device. After operating in private beta for the last 6 months, Higgle has hundreds of merchants selling thousands of products on the site.

"We wanted to build a better solution for both sides of the market, and believe that social commerce should be able to improve the experience for both shoppers and merchants," stated Aldag. "Higgle is a true marketplace where we're giving both sides the opportunity to bring what they have to the table in order to get what they want. Shoppers can use their influence and our network to get better prices on everything they want to buy, and merchants can use their pricing flexibility for the purpose of generating higher-volume sales. Merchants are saying, 'I can give you a better price if you can bring volume'; users are saying, 'on Higgle, I can bring volume'," said Aldag.

Higgle consists of a complex set of algorithms to determine acceptance, counter offers, and targeted, personalized recommendations in order to supply the best experience for merchants and consumers alike. Merchants are able to sell across a range of price points, taking advantage of real-time matchmaking between shopper demand and available supply, in an automated way – all while optimizing for higher revenue.  Unlike one-time or flash sales, Higgle has focused on building a continuous, intelligent pricing solution for merchants, dictated by the principles of supply and demand, and driven by social shopping.

"On Higgle, we're getting more targeted exposure to online shoppers than any other existing platform. Consumers are selling for us through their networks and through the people they're connected to on Higgle. I haven't seen anything like it before," said Victor Oster, Executive Sales Director at Genevive Jewelry, a fine jewelry company who also sells through other ecommerce sites. "We're able to use pricing flexibility, but only when we make a sale and for the purpose of making higher volume sales. Compare that to social and online advertising or flash sales where we're not sure what to expect. Higgle is a real game changer." 

For more information and to sign up for Higgle visit www.higgle.com, or to connect on Facebook www.facebook.com/Higgle and twitter @higgle. If you're a merchant and would like to sell on Higgle, please contact [email protected].

About Higgle

Higgle is the first social commerce marketplace built to offer dynamic pricing, real-time negotiations, and user generated offers in a way that improves the buying experience for consumers, and optimizes for higher-volume sales for merchants. The Higgle marketplace combines social and commerce in an authentic way, and is based upon basic supply and demand principles within a B2C marketplace. The San Francisco based company was founded in 2011 by Lara Aldag and Darryl Berger. 

SOURCE Higgle