Shoptiques.com is Yelp’s latest addition to its growing family of partners. With this partnership, Yelp is increasing its inventory of local boutiques such as Olive & Bette’s in New York or y&i Clothing Boutique in San Francisco. According to Yelp’s blog, Shoptiques.com is Yelp’s first partner in the shopping vertical, which is also Yelp’s largest reviewed category at 23 percent. At the end of the first quarter of 2015, consumers completed about 1.5 million transactions on Yelp Platform, Yelp said.
With 200 current boutiques, Yelp operates as a community-based eCommerce platform. Customers can browse through the Yelp platform, read reviews, have products delivered and more. By the end of the summer, it aims to have thousands of boutiques available. Its array of categories include food ordering, spa treatments, winery tastings, hotels, and now boutique shopping.
The cheerful announcement posted yesterday on its blog greatly contrasts with the news of the struggles it is currently facing. Apart from sluggish user and advertiser growth, the San Francisco-based firm is also facing rising costs, a return to a quarterly loss and a stock price that has lost 50 percent of its value in the last year.
At the beginning of the month, rumors had it that Yelp was already exploring a sale. So while this news may leave some scratching their heads, the ambitious plans for its new partnership may be just the boost that Yelp needs.
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