Start-Up Spring Hopes To Help Window Shopping Go Mobile

New York startup Spring launched its first mobile shopping app on Thursday (Aug. 14), an attempt to recreate online shopping by eliminating shopping carts and checkout, according to the New York Times.

The Spring iPhone app, which is named for Spring Street in Manhattan’s Soho District, uses an Instagram-like interface that lets shoppers scroll vertically through products by retail brand, including shoes, jackets and handbags.

After users enter name and credit card information once, the app lets them buy with as little as the swipe of a finger, or use a “like” button to request notifications from the brand that the item has gone on sale or is going out of stock.

Spring has signed up more than 100 major brands including Nicole Miller, Michael Kors and Levi’s. After buying an item, the retailer mails the item to the customer directly. All customer service is handled by the brand, not by Spring, which expects to add more than 300 brands to the platform by the end of 2014. Spring also plans to offer iPad and Android versions of the app.

The company takes a fee on every purchase, which it did not disclose but is much smaller than the average fees for similar retail referral businesses, Spring said.