There you are relaxing on your couch, watching a little TV, and up pops a dress or kitschy cocktail set that you are dying to own.
Pradux, which launched today, will make it easier to track down and buy those items. The startup has amassed a database of styles worn by TV stars and celebrities. The content is both crowdsourced and provided by costume supervisors and stylists who upload content to Pradux’s backend.
You can browse the site by TV show, or by categories such as home, beauty and bath, clothing, and accessories. Pradux currently features 20,000 products, and clicking on an item will direct you where to buy it.
“There are TV fan page blogs that cover fashion on television, however they are fragmented and unreliable,” founder Alex Koblenz told VentureBeat. “They generally focus on individual shows and don’t have a robust, database covering older seasons. Pradux allows users to follow individual shows sorted by season and episodes and television characters for a truly curated experience.”
The product placement market is worth more than $8 billion, and over 75 percent of U.S. prime-time TV shows use product placements in their episodes. With major changes happening to the world of TV advertising, product placement represents a powerful way to get goods in front of consumers.
The company makes money through an affiliate network and takes a commission every time a purchase is generated from a partnered retailer. Pradux has already established relationships with Intermix, Barneys, Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus, Net-A-Porter, Mr Porter, Nordstrom, Shopbop, Dagny and Barstow, Madison and Alene Too, as well as brands such as Theory and Alice & Olivia.
Individuals are also encouraged to share products they like and tag uploaded photos. You provide a link to where the product can be purchased, and if someone buys the product through a partnered retailer, Pradux splits the commission 50/50 with you.
Pradux also has tools for bloggers, fashionistas, and entertainers, who can use its white-labeled embed feature to make photos and clothing images on their own sites “shoppable.” Koblenz said this gives them the opportunity to make money off their blogs, without dealing with inventory management or credit card processing.
Competitors include Get This (app), ShopYourTV.com, WornOnTv.net, Shazam For Clothes (app), and WhereToGet.It, as well as fashion sites like Fancy, Svpply, and Pinterest.
The company has raised $600,000 to date and participated in Dogpatch Labs.
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