Joor: Facebook of fashion ecommerce

Joor is a network that makes it easier for brands and boutique owners to connect and conduct business. On Joor, boutique members can browse collections, make purchases, and communicate on the network. Joor brand members can communicate visually with their current clientele in real time and research new potential markets. Based out of New York Joor is a venture-backed company with investment from Battery Ventures, Lerer Ventures, Forerunner Venture Partners and several other angel investors.

Brands and boutiques create customizable pages on the Joor network in an interface similar to that used by popular social networking sites. To ensure privacy, brands and boutiques request a "connection" before mutual access is granted. Once connected, members can access each other and communicate via their pages, and take advantage of the many tools Joor offers to support the vendor-buyer relationship.

Joor screens every brand and boutique before granting them access to the site. They are focused on contemporary and advanced contemporary buyers and brands. If buyers are approved, they are given access to the site free of charge. Brands pay an initiation fee to gain access to the site and a small percent per transaction.

“We focused on B2B because it is an untapped market in fashion. Boutiques don’t have a system of record where they can interact and transact with their brands on a daily basis. Brands do not have the bandwidth to focus on independent boutiques around the world. It’s a very fragmented market that requires an efficient and easy-to-use online channel to scale profitably. We are dedicated to the wholesale market and believe there is tremendous potential in servicing the market. In the short term, we are not opening up Joor to consumers.” says Mona Bijoor, Founder of Joor.Mona Bijoor's experience as a brand consultant for the fashion industry and within buying departments for global retailers inspired her to create Joor. After experiencing firsthand some of the incredible challenges and time constraints that professionals in this industry face—rushing to showroom appointments, poring over line sheets, and scouting emerging talent, Bijoor decided to create a private network offering online technology solutions for common "pain points."

Joor delivers a personalized experience for buyers and enables them to see all of their brands in one place. Joor also provides updates from each brand in the form of announcements, press and messages from sales reps. At a glance, buyers can easily access exactly what they need. 

For brands, Joor provides a variety of services that enable them to prospect, communicate, and sell product via the site. Joor is the only online marketplace that gives brands access to a visual database of thousands of boutiques around the world.

For boutique buyers, Joor is provides access to brands and detailed records of purchase history and reminders on when to replenish best-selling items.

On operations in India, Mona says “We currently don’t have any Indian brands on the network, however we do have a few boutique members. Indian boutique buyers are big fans of American designers so they are active on the site. The Indian market is an area of opportunity for Joor, both in terms of buyers and brands. There is amazing design talent in India that we’d love to help bring to other parts of the world.”

To find out more visit Joor by clicking here. 

What do you think of this B2B wholesale ecommerce platform? Do you think social networking aspects like these make wholesale ecommerce easy? Join us as we debate this and more at our flagship event focused on ecommerce: ESparks. Please register now to attend e-Sparks 2011 – India’s premier e-commerce startup showcase, on 17th Dec at IIM Bangalore. If you are an Indian e-commerce startup, then please do register now to be the e-Sparks 2011.