Investing in Tags

the new barcode # -> 🤑

The commerce market is just insane. It wasn’t until 2022 did I realize just how massive it’s become. Over the recent decade, the growth of online commerce has exploded with the global market size being just over $10 Trillion (e-commerce only represents 20% of total retail sales). Despite how massive the market has become, 70% of checkout carts are abandoned. Why, you may ask? Well, some say its due to a rigid checkout experience; inflexible payment methods, additional fees, poor website design, forced account creation, etc. As much as we claim bringing the shopping experience online has made buying and purchasing easier for consumers, it’s made it just as easy to ‘window shop’. Creators and brands are on the hunt to transform the checkout experience by unlocking new channels where they could essentially ‘embed’ and sell their products/services.

And thus, embedded commerce was born.

The idea behind embedded commerce it to basically embed a merchant's inventory into other websites, platforms and social channels. Much like how you can embed a Youtube video into other platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Substack, merchants can embed their products into those same platforms/channels. No longer are consumers forced to shop only on websites alone. Websites are the new brick and mortar. Tags are the new barcode.

Tags are encoded with transactional data. So wherever you place a Tag, it becomes an instant and distributed point of sale. With Tags, your content is shoppable and your store exists wherever your customers are paying attention. Your store no longer lives within a website. Essentially, the world becomes the store. Brands can monetize offline by placing Tags on apparel, magazines, or packaging. They can also leverage an influencer’s social presence by assigning them Tags and embedding them into pictures, videos, and more (earning a commission while doing so). Creators can monetize all socials, sell while live streaming on their favorite apps, during podcasts, and even launch a pop-up without the need for a website, app, or even internet access. 

With Tags, consumers can scan, text, tap, and even vocalize a Tag to activate an instant purchase. Tags can appear as a QR code, button, vocal command, or in written format as for example, $Nike004, where ‘004’ represents SKU.

Tags has worked with customers like the Los Angeles Lakers, Foot Locker, Roc Nation, Parade, Young & Reckless and influencers Kall Me Kris, Guap and others.

When I first met the founder, Daniel Abas, I was blown away by the sheer thoughtfulness and vision that he has for future of commerce. His enthusiasm for ‘distributed checkouts’ is simply infectious and I have no doubt that it will continue to spread. I couldn’t be more excited to announce that I’ve invested in Tag’s $3.5m pre-seed round alongside XRC Labs, Gaingels, Not Boring, Tiny Capital, Vibe Capital, Unpopular Ventures.

Keep an 👁️ out for more updates on Tags. Also, please let me know if you’d like to connect/chat with the team!