MAVATAR

I’m writing a blog about the meaning of the Mavatar Cart. The reason that we designed this Cart was the fact that I believed in the power that data has given the consumer  (M is the symbol of Me, My, and Mine) in a bubble (the idea came to me after I read “The Filter Bubble” by Elli Praiser). The Consumer is only the recipient of whatever the Market wants for her. The Mavatar shopping cart is an “M” which extends as the handle of the cart and empowers the user to crack the bubble to push My CART forward in MY direction, My options, My needs, Mine!

The handle of the Cart is the symbol of consumers control of their shopping decision.

J: Technology today opens so many doors for innovative ideas, how does Mavatar stand out above the rest?

S: Today technologies & platforms such as recommendation engines, targeting, retargeting and push advertising platforms focus on aggregating consumers’ data and making retailers smarter about their next move. These platforms have created a lot of noise and ineffective pools of data that has confused and annoyed consumers, shifted the retailers marketing dollars to the wrong directions while the problem of cart abandonment roots from the paradigm shift in consumer behaviors and abundant choices.

Modern consumers don’t like to be pushed. They actively “pull” information helpful to them by exhausting their options using multiple tools and touch points. Millennials tend to be driven more by product, reviews and better prices than loyalty to any particular brands! They appreciate transparency and want to feel empowered and in control when shopping because that’s how they live!

The power of Mavatar is helping them to instantly process tons of data during critical purchase decisions with state-of-the-art & patent-pending technologies. We narrow down the decision making process, aggregate and optimize the incentives to help stores reach consumers at the perfect time, right before a transaction.

On the other side, retailers have to think about rewarding their modern sales force; Influencers. Only 7% of the influencers (bloggers, publishers, NGOs,…) make money out of their content and recommending retailers’ products because monetization of content is not easy. With Mavatar, approval with stores and networks, technology knowhow & deployment, dead end-points (expiring cookies & dead links) are all eliminated. Influencers can also unleash their creative power by allowing fans to shop for newest trends and not from old, limited and noisy product feeds!

The Mavatar shopping carts allow them to go to stores sites and directly curate products from real-time online inventory, writing content around the carts and products, trends, their sentiments, causes, etc using our elegant and user friendly publishing platform & back-links their carts to their contents everywhere from web social, video and print or offline world!

J: Shopping online or in store?

S: I love online shopping because I can do it at 2am when the world is sleeping and I don’t feel as guilty. Also, stores have a skewed inventory matching with the regional customers’ demographic. I never can find such a diversity of choices offline. It not be as  embarrassing  to pull a 20% coupon out of your Chanel bag to buy a Fendi one at Neiman Marcus! No one cares what you do to save money when you are shopping for items online!

J: Favorite item in your closet?

S: My shoes and pieces I can mix and match with everything like my Akris burgundy cardigan and Christian Dior lime green open toe shoes! They are comfortable and despite my original expectation, go with a lot of different colors, making my outfit fun!

J: What advice do you have for a new entrepreneur?

S: Any human being can make a mistake! Entrepreneurs should encourage a non-judgmental and feedback oriented culture. The great effect of such a culture is the fact that mistakes and problems don’t have time to get amplified! The wounds never get chronic and there is always a quick treatment for any concern, ethical problem or crisis even if I had personally caused them. So this thought process has enabled me to make faster decisions which has been vital to the growth of the ventures I have started. Offering a simple apology and not taking offense at your team’s opinion about you, your decisions and behaviors create trust overtime which is invaluable to any organization.

People perceive me as lucky but Luck to me is bringing new dimension to whatever you do, spreading a lot of seeds on the ground, moving constantly and making cold calls to the universe! As many as you can! When I came to US I only had one friend but just a few years after later, I had a network of 10,000 powerful friends and business acquaintances. !  Finding my perfect partner, a Ph.D student from Stanford Infolabs (where Google came about with the same supervisor) can be only attributed to my habit of cold calling to the universe!  He was the only one who had multiple researches on new advertising models and user privacy; the very oxymoron that kept me up at night!

I sent him an email, telling him about my idea. He emailed me back 10 minutes later and we got on the a call. One hour later I was in his office at Stanford Infolabs, sketching the idea on a white board for the next 5 hours. Together, we worked as partners and become partners to work  on Mavatar idea for the next 7 months before bringing the third partner/CEO and founding the company

J: Mantra you live by? 

S: Transparency! You can be brave when you don’t have to hide your agenda. In fact that’s the first indication that your agenda sucks if you have to hide it!

J: Something you wish more people knew.

S: When Ford asked people what they want for transportation, they said: Faster horses and then he introduced the CAR to them. I wish people knew that Mavatar is a CAR and yes obviously it has a learning curve which surprisingly is not that steep! Learn it and you fall in love with it. As PC magazine wrote about we will change the way people shop! FOREVER!

Head on over to Mavatar and shop the discounts from Macy’s, Sacks, Gap, Banana Republic, Neiman Marcus, Horchow, Athleta, Bergdorf Goodman, Cusp, Bloomingdale’s, Old Navy, Last Call and more. Not sure where to start, take a peak at a few of the carts that I created by clicking —> here.

Remember when Yves Saint Laurent said fashion fades but style is eternal? Well that’s true! What I love about this is that you can create your own cart that is true to your personal style, no matter what you think is “in fashion” or trending it’s yours to shop, share or just to keep as a wish list. One thing I know for sure as a stylist, this will be easy to shop for my clients, as a blogger, I think my wish list grows a little more each day and as a general human being I will be sending my friends and family the links to my carts for easy reference since we all know around birthdays and holiday’s the favorite questions to ask is “What do you want for ______”.

I hope this inspires you to keep chasing your dreams, give it time and dedication and I promise you will get there.

xx