The Interview: Co-Founders of UPPFIRST on revolutionizing e-commerce

It’s easy to forget that e-commerce is still a relatively new concept. Since its inception in the 1990s, e-commerce has exploded, enabling local brands to expand globally. Technology has come on leaps and bounds since, so what’s the next step for e-com? UPPFIRST may have the solution.

UPPFIRST describes itself as “the community sales engine for creators”. The company has simplified the process of selling online all while its technology is primed to handle immense demand.

Making selling online as easy as importing images and a collection of words, UPPFIRST is ready – and has started – to democratize the world of selling online. Think Squarespace but for e-commerce rather than editorial.

Ed Diner and Arnaud Touret, two of the four Co-founders of the pioneering sales engine, told TheIndustry.fashion about their plans to revolutionise the world of e-commerce, starting with fashion but ultimately expanding to an endless range of categories.

What is your career background and what inspired you to start UPPFIRST alongside its other founders?

AT: UPPFIRST is my second startup. But, my specialty and background is tech, which is the underlying theme of everything I do. I’m obsessed with tech and I’m obsessed with using it to reduce inefficiencies and improve the market. My previous business was a health tech company.

One of our three co-founders, Payam Mirtorabi, came up with the idea of ​​UPPFIRST just over two years ago. He would call me every single day telling me about his idea, and eventually, he convinced me to shutter my business and start something completely new from scratch. Looking back, it was the right call.

ED: My background is very boring – think finance and hedge funds. I did it for a while and I enjoyed it, but it was never really my passion. My focus was always on consumer markets and technology. So, I invested in companies that were at the intersection of both of those things.

Payam, who I’ve been friends with for 20 years, came to me with this idea. It was really within the sweet spot of my interests and where I felt like I had value to add. I always wanted to create something of my own that made me feel like I was doing something impactful.

How would you summarise the concept of UPPFIRST?

AD: It’s really about democratizing selling. Today, there are many commerce platforms out there, but they can be complex, expensive and lacking in community connection. That’s where we come in – UPPFIRST is a sales engine, where we effectively give the tech and tools to sellers to sell or pre-sell their product directly to their audience or consumers.

ED: Take you, for example. Yes, it could be anyone. You have a full-time job, but you have an idea and have always wanted to sell something. The barriers for you to go and do that are quite complex at the moment. It takes time and it takes money. It also often takes the need to code, right? Well, we give you the tools, in the same way you would post a picture on Instagram or any other social media platform to start selling a product.

So, when a user comes to our website to build their page, it’s similar to building a social media page. But instead, its a transactional selling page that they can then use to interact with their community.

UPPFIRST is as intuitive to use as social media, yet as powerful and scalable as the largest online marketplaces. How did you make it scalable?

AT: Yes, it should be as intuitive as social media, but as powerful as the largest selling platforms out there. We put scalability to the test with the Nicki Minaj and LOCI collaboration. Nicki has 300 million followers and a portion of those were going to come onto our site to pre-order. So, we had to be prepared for that. It forced us to look at our technology and infrastructure to make sure that everything was robust. Ultimately, everything went well, with no glitches. Consumers were able to shop seamlessly, and we were able to prove that this tech is scalable to very, very big numbers very quickly.

What is community commerce and iis it something you see the industry as a whole adapting?

ED: There are many tech solutions out there where you pay high fees, up to 30%. This is because established companies, such as Amazon, are bringing you buyers. But in the world of social media, everyone has an audience, whether it’s 10 followers or 10 million followers. So why pay such egregious fees?

We’re not the driver of sales in that respect, but our fees are in the low single digits, depending on how much you transact (the amount of sales determines the percentage UPPFIRST takes). We charge a fee for each transaction rather than a subscription fee. So, the cost is competitive and very transparent.

Is the low cost and simplicity what makes UPPFIRST different from other platforms?

ED: Yes. Simplicity, ease of use and power!

AT: We also have features that are designed to engage the community. For example, when you buy or sell an item, you can get a reward. This could be that a brand gives the customer back 20% on a purchase to spend next time. By rewarding your customers, they’re more likely to come back and spend with you again. These features build community.

UPPFIRST recently facilitated the sales process for Nicki Minaj’s collaboration with sustainable sneaker brand LOCI, how did you prepare the platform to handle immense demand?

AT: For the collaboration, we sold via a pre-sale method. Our very first launch was with HEAT about a year ago, selling its mystery boxes. That enabled us to test and scale the pre-selling feature. It did very well, which was a big moment for us. It was validation of the year’s work and ideation that we had done.

Fashion is not everything we want to go for, but it’s a good place for us to start. From the collaboration with HEAT, we found work around presale. All of the luxury fashion brands, such as Roksanda, Diwali, Chet Lo, which are all using our technology, will do fashion shows. So much money is spent making amazing shows and viral moments, but those watching the show have no way to buy the items. They have to wait six months until they can purchase it. Using our technology, some of these brands like Roksanda can print QR codes around their shows, which allow people to pre-order the looks they see. This is great for two reasons: cash flow and data collection. Say I’m Roksanda and I’m making the same dress in two different colours and see that people are pre-ordering one, that may cause me to make less of the less popular colour or boost my marketing around it.

Historically, brands have always looked to the past to predict the future. For example, I sold 10 black t-shirts last season, so I’m going to make 20 this time. But this isn’t efficient. Pre-selling is almost like peering into a looking glass, where you can see what’s going to happen, and then use that to inform your wider collection and strategy.

We’re also targeting emerging designers and emerging brands that have an idea and amazing craftsmanship but don’t necessarily have the time, money or resources to build a website. We call it a ‘testbed for creativity’, where they can have a crazy idea, make a sample, and add it easily to the site without having to pay a fee until it sells.

Can you tell us more about UPPFIRST’s pre-sale functionality and how it champions responsible commerce?

AT: In fashion today, everyone always thinks that the problem of overconsumption is for consumers. But it’s not. The problem starts earlier on. Wholesalers and retailers want to stock every shade of every design, for example, or the customer would just shop elsewhere. Historically, wholesalers and retailers have always over-ordered, fully knowing that they’re not going to be able to sell everything, and it ends up on sale. Then a big portion of those items that are on sale end up in landfills. This is where our pre-sale solution comes in. Manufacturers can make products after they have sold them, so they are not overproducing. No one will go towards a 100% pre-sell model, but we believe our technology can make things better.

So, the goal is to democratize fashion selling. Are there any other big plans for the future?

AT: We started with fashion because it’s something people spend a lot of money on, especially online. Another reason we started with fashion was to find a solution for overproduction, which ends up in landfills. We want to show, with features such as pre-sale, that there is a new, better, and more sustainable way to do things. The idea is to then expand to different verticals, for example, events and ticketing. Again, it’s about democratizing data. Today, the ticket masters and artists of this world don’t get that much at the end of ticket sales. So, it’s about trying to shake up those dynamics and do things in a better way.

ED: Whether it’s a fashion brand having to go through a wholesaler to their customer, or an artist or a DJ, or whoever it is having to go to the bar promoter or ticket event plan, we feel we can remove the middleman. It links back to that community commerce angle – that it’s just connecting you directly with that person, regardless of what it is you do or what you’re selling.

Behind the scenes, we don’t dictate anything – we just build the tools for users to determine. We’re more focused now on bringing on those waves of emerging sellers, or scaling up in terms of numbers, rather than what big-name brand is going to use it.

If we had started with just some university graduates, some designers may have turned their noses up at UPPFIRST. Now we have luxury fashion brands using our technology, we want to bring up the masses from below. That’s our drive. I think that’s where a big pain point in the industry is and that’s where we can make a difference. Now we’ve perfected the technique, we want to scale.

AT: I also think that this is how the new generation wants to be engaged. Gen Z wants authentic experiences, where they feel close to a brand and almost part of the manufacturing process. For example, TikTok Shop brings the buyer and the seller closer together. In the same way, we’re bringing the consumer and selling experience together. For example, Chet Lo, in addition to offering pieces from his collection, can offer a Zoom call or visit to his factory. It’s about adding experiences to products and making e-commerce a little bit more authentic and a little bit less boring.