gilt

That was fast: Fab.com closes in on 2M members

Fab.com, a design focused e-commerce site that runs flash sales, is doing an impressive job racking up really big numbers.

The site, in its current iteration, is just eight months old and is already boasting that it's about to hit 2 million members, likely making it the fastest growing e-commerce site on the planet.

That's impressive, for sure, especially given that until Wednesday, Fab.com wasn't open to all; you had to request an invite and Fab would send you an e-mail within a day or two welcoming you to the party.

That in itself was … Read more

Struggling BuyWithMe may live on as unit of Gilt, report says

Daily-deals provider BuyWithMe has been sold off to Gilt Groupe, BetaBeat is reporting.

According to the blog, neither party divulged the terms of the acquisition. The companies expect to combine forces on November 1. Gilt expects to layoff some BuyWithMe sales staff and provide them with one week's pay as a severance, BetaBeat's sources say.

Unfortunately for BuyWithMe, layoffs have become commonplace at the company. Just last week, the company laid off over half of its staff, or about 100 people, due to its continued inability to compete effectively against Groupon and LivingSocial. According to BetaBeat, sales staff … Read more

Google Offers expands: New cities, deal partners

Google Offers continues to expand.

The daily-deals arm of the search giant announced 14 new deal partners and new personalization features making the process of finding and receiving relevant deals in one location more seamless for consumers. Google Offers also branched out to four new cities this week: San Jose, San Diego, Minneapolis and Baltimore.

"If deals aren't relevant or don't match your interests, they're spam," Nitin Mangtani, product manager for Google Offers, told CNET. So to broaden its consumer appeal and make deals more targeted, Google is adding new inventory categories such as luxury … Read more

Want a 2011 VW Jetta for under $6,000?

Volkswagen has teamed up with luxury discount site Gilt Groupe to offer a limited number of 2011 Jettas for $5,995.

The purchase price of each car will go to Dress for Success Worldwide, an international nonprofit that helps economically disadvantaged women.

One Jetta is up for grabs each day for three days. Sales started today and will resume tomorrow, December 16, and Friday, December 17 at noon (I'm guessing Eastern time; the site doesn't specify, although there is a really cool countdown clock).

You have to register on the Gilt Web site ahead of time, and it'… Read more

Digital City 98: NYC Maker Faire highlights, why we keep our phones longer, and Gilt obsession

We ventured out into the real world this week, with Scott and Joey trekking out to Queens to attend the NYC version of the Maker Faire, and coming back with a slideshow of exotic DIY inventions.

A new study shows we're all keeping our mobile phones longer than ever--is it because they've gotten so good that we want to hold onto them, or because we're locked into onerous multiyear contracts? Later, Dan recalls the moment of horror he experienced last week, when he realized every single item of clothing he was wearing came from super-hot private shopping start-up Gilt.com.

In you're keeping count, we're only two weeks away from the big 100th episode special! Be sure to tune in for all sorts of surprises and giveaways, including the ultimate video game T-shirt collection and the long-awaited downloadable Digital City theme song MP3.

… Read more

Let's make a deals site, or two

Every so often a marketing fad comes along in digital media that makes companies willing to adopt it so quickly that they wind up bending and twisting their business models like Silly Putty. There were Facebook apps. There were Foursquare-style "game mechanics." These days, short-term retail deals have taken over.

Of course, none of this is new. Following the runaway success of Groupon, which offers a steep daily discount-a-day in dozens of cities around the world, with the condition that a minimum number of buyers must sign on; and Gilt, which has built an empire of low-priced designer … Read more

Content meets commerce on members-only sites

Invitation-based, private sale sites like Gilt, Vente-privee, and Ideeli have become all the rage over the last two years as entrepreneurs and investors have looked for new ways to reach customers who have more disposable income than the recession-burdened masses.

On Thursday, Thrillist, a provider of daily e-mails highlighting cool things to do, see, and buy, announced it would acquire JackThreads, a guy-oriented shopping site that runs daily specials for invitation-only members. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. (Note: in this case, invitations are given to pretty much anyone who asks, and are used as more of a … Read more

Jruby powers Gilt.com luxury shopping

JRuby is a relatively new high-performance Java implementation of the Ruby language that is showing increasing popularity among Java developers looking for additional productive frameworks.

JRuby allows for the incremental adoption of the Ruby language by allowing easy integration with existing Java libraries. It also lets Ruby and Rails applications to run easily on existing Java application servers that have been selected as standards within an organization.

I've been somewhat dismissive of Ruby as a language but there are more and more examples of large websites running extremely well. In fact RubyConf (already sold out) and JRubyConf are both seeing significant interest from developers for the upcoming events in San Francisco.

In the Q&A below I discuss how Jruby powers shopping site Gilt.com with CTO and co-founder Michael Bryzek.

If you are not familiar, Gilt Groupe has an interesting business model, somewhere between eBay and Woot, offering invitation-only sales of high-end fashion and luxury brands for men, women, and children. The site deals with unique spikes in traffic when new items are released as well as when an item becomes extremely popular. Accordingly, the IT infrastructure needs to be able to scale and burst in order to meet customer demands. … Read more

Gadgettes Podcast 157: The Recessionista Episode

We've heard that the recession is waning. But our gut tells us something different. Today we examine gadgets that appeal to our recession-warped minds.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 157

Downturn doll sleeps in a car - but costs $95

Dell banks its brand on artists, baseball and nail polish

Netbooks rise, notebooks fall

Sony’s new Vaio X: thinnest laptop ever, $1,300 and up

SanDisk on Sansa: Value is our top priority

Gilt on the Go iPhone app… Read more