SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., March 28, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Baby Clothing Network, an online trading service for children's clothing, is part of a growing trend of swapping items of value online that incorporates social media to foster communication and trading fairness.
Moms that interact at the Baby Clothing Network offload clothes their children have recently outgrown, earn shopping credits based on the value of their items, and use those shopping credits to purchase other clothing. Swapping sites are gaining popularity based on their money-saving appeal and simplicity.
Part of the appeal and differentiation of Baby Clothing Network is the focus on creating fair trades.
"Outside of consignment stores the used baby clothing sector does a very poor job of recognizing values of top brands," says BCN's founder, Patrick Knauer. "And it's difficult as you're dealing with hundreds of brands, a product with a short shelf life and lots of different customer opinions. Our solution was born from social media strategies such as community sourcing. We built a community valuation algorithm. Our database contains dollar values associated with over 500 brands and it dynamically updates based on member feedback."
Here's how BCN works. Data is casually collected as a BCN member browses boxes of clothing. As a user is previewing items of clothing available for trade, they see the current dollar representation of each item. If they feel the item is over or under valued, they simply click an icon to indicate their opinion. When user feedback triggers certain thresholds the values in the BCN database update and the next time the brand and article are uploaded the updated values are shown. The system continues adjusting until it stabilizes at a consensus point.
As this gathering of information continues, the company will have the most accurate and realistic pricing information for the broad spectrum of used baby clothing brands. The BCN method generates fair trades and keeps the online trading community happy while giving the company an edge on the competition.
This dynamic swapping method wouldn't have been possible without the integration of social media into Baby Clothing Network.
"We wouldn't be able to realize our goal as a business without social strategies," says Knauer. "It's been part of our earliest vision to build a community, a network of moms, that want to exchange and help each other by swapping kids clothes. It's important to find ways to leverage social sites like Facebook and Twitter to help connect moms and grow our members. But we also want to integrate our customer into the evolution of our site and service. Our community driven database is the perfect example of customer participation fueling business strategies."
Baby Clothing Network, which was launched in January 2011, already has an active community of over 600 traders and a Facebook following of 5,000 fans.