Shop Together, Apart: Social Retail in the Digital Age with Unabandon for Shopify

Reinventing the Social Shopping Experience for the Shopify Era. 

The last 3 years have been nothing short of a wild ride. The pandemic barged in uninvited, shook things up, and now seems to be on its way out. But it left behind a transformed world where online shopping has taken center stage. Talk about leaving an impression!

As someone who's spent years accepting the status quo of online shopping, I couldn't help but notice a gaping hole in the experience. You see, shopping used to be a social affair, where we'd hit the mall with friends and engage in some retail therapy together. Ah, the good old days.

As a self-proclaimed research and feedback connoisseur, I'd indulge in reading expert reviews, customer testimonials, and more before taking the plunge. But recently, I found myself struggling to loop in my friends and family for some much-needed advice. What's a shopper to do?

I resorted to taking screenshots of my cart and sending them through WhatsApp, messages, or email. But when feedback started pouring in, it was a nightmare trying to make sense of it all. The shopping experience felt disjointed, and quite frankly, broken.

And then, like a bolt from the blue, the idea struck me: Why not create an app that integrates seamlessly with the fantastic Shopify ecosystem? One that lets merchants enable the friend-shopping experience for their customers in the online world.

After asking friends and family how they tackled this shopping conundrum, I discovered that I wasn't alone. They, too, resorted to screenshots and messages. So, I scoured the app stores, thinking surely there must be a solution to this problem. I did find some, but they were overly complicated and required a tangled web of messaging tool integrations.

This will be the WHY for Unabandon: to build a Shopify app that simplifies the buying decision for customers and, in the process, converts more carts for merchants.

Simon Sinek, the author of "Start with Why", inspired me in my last business and now for this one.