A few weeks ago, social commerce network Lockerz acquired photo sharing app Plixi as a way to boost photo sharing on its platform. It looks like the company has hit the ground running in terms of integrations and today is launching a new photo sharing app.
Lockerz, which has raised $30 million from Kleiner Perkins newly launched sFund, Liberty Media and Liberty Media’s CEO Greg Maffei, revolves around the idea that influencers within a social network can become brand and content advocates and affect the behavior of their friends. The site attempts to build a community of trendsetters and tastemakers who love to shop, play and connect on the Web and allows users can earn points and discounts on brands by sharing content on the site.
With the rollout of Lockerz Photos, members will now be able to post, share, “Like” and comment on photos within the network, similar to interactions on Facebook. But Lockerz is adding a interesting twist to photo sharing—Lockerz members earn points that can be turned into discounts on brands when they upload photos. In the next few weeks, members will also earn points when friends “Like” and comment on their photos, which can be shared to other social networks as well. The site is also holding Lockerz Photo Challenges in which members submit photos of their favorite outfit, best Ninja move, best friend and more to earn extra points for brand discounts.
And Lockerz plans to extend the same functionality to Plixi, which is remaining as a standalone photo sharing app. So any Plixi users who share photos will accrue Lockerz points that can be redeemed on the network. The caveat is that Plixi users will have to join Lockerz to access their rewards (which is a plus for Lockerz, of course).
Lockerz CEO and founder Kathy Savitt tells us that the Plixi integration is going so well that the company is looking at other startups to acquire in the next year. She says she has a few “irons in the fire,” but can’t reveal more about what companies Lockerz is looking at.
I’m curious to see if Lockerz can actually match Facebook’s scale of photo sharing. Rewards are certainly a compelling way to incentivize engagement on the site, so it should be interesting to see if Lockerz can expand its userbase and create loyal members using photos.