Iâve never been one of those people that considers shopping âfun.â I shop because itâs necessary, because I need something. If gamification has taught us anything though, itâs that all it might take for something to become fun and interesting is to make it a game.
In this case, a start-up called Little Black Bag launched a service that puts a twist on the Japanese idea of fukubukuro. Fukubukuro is a custom where merchants sell fun-bags that contain the prior yearâs clothes and shoesâat a steep discount. Itâs not uncommon for people to trade, too.
Little Black Bag is like that, only you know whatâs in your bag. When you sign up, you can save your preferred brands as well as take a quiz that determines your personality. You then pay a flat fee for your âfun bagâ, and the items you get you are free to trade. Wired reports that this set-up makes the service more like a game than anything else.
Little Black Bag is not your typical flash-sale e-commerce site. Itâs part online community, part online store. Murillo likens Little Black Bag to a âmassively multiplayer online shop,â with more similarities to Farmville than discount e-retailers Gilt or Rue La La.
Unsurprisingly, players shoppers will aim for items that they know will trade well, even if they donât actually want them. And, like you might expect with a game of this sort, thereâs badges to earn and other such social elements.
Granted, as interesting as this is to me, Little Black Bag doesnât really feature the type of stuff Iâd buy. But I could see myself participating if this idea expanded to other types of digital storefronts. Steam lets you do something similar, and thatâs really sweet.
Image Credit: Wired
Massively Multiplayer Online ⊠Shopping? Itâs Real, Addictive and Brutal [Wired]
