The Hunt Launches To Make Millions Of Online Photos Shoppable

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 22, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hunt, a community-driven shopping experience, launched today to solve shoppers' number one pain point: where to actually purchase items seen on photo-sharing websites such as Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr. While millions of social media users want to buy items from images they see shared online, more than 90% of these photos do not contain links or buying information. The Hunt caters to the emerging "eCommerce-ization of images" trend. Images and image-sharing sites continue to proliferate, yet eCommerce lags behind. There is an immediate market need for The Hunt to help consumers find and purchase items inspired by those photos.

The Hunt is an evolution in online shopping - sparked by a photo, like-minded fashionistas share their desired products, shop for one another and style each others' looks and outfits. The Hunt leverages the knowledge and creativity of its community to link users to actual eCommerce sites selling the exact or similar items they are hunting for. Prior to official launch, The Hunt has generated more than 65,000 active members who spend an average of 24 minutes per day on the site. Unique visitors to the site in December crossed 615,000, clearly a strong indication that the model is resonating, particularly with the 18-34 female demo.

"We designed The Hunt to be complementary to photo sharing, photo curating and wish list making sites, which increasingly are the number one way people are inspired to shop," said Tim Weingarten, co-founder and chief executive officer, The Hunt. "The Hunt is about making photos found on these sites as well as user-generated photos actionable; a visual Q&A that allows users to present a fashion dilemma that is then solved by the community."

While The Hunt's first goal is to help consumers find products, eCommerce sites and brands benefit as well. The site is highly shoppable with all products organized around trend, look and outfit. In just 6 months, members have found for each other 115,000 products from over 10,000 unique stores. In December alone, members generated over 250,000 referrals to eCommerce sites with conversion rates to purchase five to ten times higher than other sources of social/web traffic.

The Hunt's core demographics are teens, college students and twentysomethings. Currently, 80% of its members are ages 17 – 30. One of the reasons The Hunt has found early success with this demographic is it delivers affordable and approachable products with an average of $75 spent per product.

"Millenials increasingly use social media to shop for fashion," said Weingarten. "They grew up with collaborative technology and are smarter about purchases than older generations. They're mindful of budget and getting a truly unique find, even if it takes longer to hunt down that find."

Similar to an online game, The Hunt delivers an experiential 'thrill of the chase' - whether a user is hunting for herself or others. Instead of having to leave the couch to shop, shop alone or rely on the opinions of a select group of friends, users can participate in a community of hunters helping with their fashion quest. The Hunt integrates seamlessly with members' Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest accounts. Members "start a hunt" by clicking on a button that links recent photos they've "liked" on Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest, or from any website. Next, they fill out characteristics about their photo that will help others hunt for the item or similar items.

The Hunt is a seed stage startup co-founded by tech entrepreneurs, Tim Weingarten and Simon Peck. Prior to The Hunt, Weingarten spent eight years at early stage VC firm Worldview Technology Partners and three years as CEO of a portfolio company. Peck spent four years leading the web engineering team at Quantcast. To date, the company has raised $2M in funding led by Javelin Venture Partners.

For more information on The Hunt, please visit www.thehunt.com.

About TheHunt.com

The Hunt is a community-driven shopping experience that makes it easy and fun to shop for the things you see in photos on sites like Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr. The Hunt is an evolution in online shopping and solves shoppers foremost pain point when browsing these sites: where to actually purchase the item in the photo. Based in San Francisco and co-founded by tech entrepreneurs Tim Weingarten and Simon Peck, the company is a seed stage startup that has raised $2M in funding led by Javelin Venture Partners.For more information, please visit www.thehunt.com.

Media Contact:
Sevan Fishman
JCUTLER media group
[email protected]

SOURCE The Hunt