Svpply.com: Curated Holiday Consumerism

If you think you can beat the holiday shopping rush by turning to the Internet, think again. What Internet shopping lacks in sensory overload it gains in infinite scroll. Inundated with incessant feeds of information, sifting through even your favorite websites can prove overwhelming. This holiday season navigate the seemingly endless supply by curating your shopping experience with Svpply.com, which “helps you find the products you love, from the people and stores you find interesting.”

Warning: while this website may save you the trouble of deciding what to buy, it will also give you the tools of an Internet tastemaker, which is altogether too satisfying, and ultimately, extremely time consuming.

If you ever cut up catalogues and pasted together wish lists as a kid or if you’re the kind of Internet user who looks at Tumblr and Pinterest and thinks, “Yeah, this is cool and everything, but where can I buy this stuff?” then Svpply is for you. Members bookmark their favorite items from all over the Internet; creating a profile that displays the products they want, which they can organize into “collections,” (i.e. “Holiday Wish List” or “Gift Ideas”).

According to Svpply, each of the over 3 million products in their “shop” has been hand selected by one of their members, and brought to their site using Svpply’s “bookmarklet.” This “Buy Later” browser button is easy to install in your bookmarks bar. Clicking it while browsing various websites allows you to add items to your own profile and ultimately the Svpply registry at large. Sadly, there are more pictures of products on the Internet than there are actual products and Svpply does not account for the stock of the items featured on its website. So don’t forget to click the “buy” button so you can visit the original website and snag the product before some other shopper does, lest you forget the desperate Tickle Me Elmo rush of 1996.

Svpply users harness the power of crowd sourcing by following the feeds of other Svpply shoppers. If you’re not into rolling up your sleeves and scouring the nooks and crannies of the Internet yourself, then let someone else harvest the cream of the crop for you. Updated every ten minutes, Svpply estimates that it brings in over 3,000 products a day from all across the web thanks to user participation.

Using Svpply for the first time is much like going shopping with a stylish friend; they understand your tastes better than you do and walk around the store saying, “Hey, I think you’d really like this.” Except instead of a single store, it’s the entire Internet and instead of just one friend it is anyone whose swag you admire, whether you know them in real life or not.

With a sleek design that makes the products center stage, the interface appeals to designers and visual Millennials; two demographics that usually have a strong grasp of the latest trends. So if you’re looking for that perfect something for the picky hipster in your family, Svpply’s “trending products,” (e.g. a sweatshirt that says, “I like cats”) is your best bet.

Still doubtful? The all-time most popular product on Svpply, with nearly 6,000 “wants” is $12 starry string lights from Restoration Hardware. And who wouldn’t love some festive lights for the holiday season? Search for other items according to your price range, categories like “apparel” or “tech” and keywords like “blue” or “vintage.” While using Svpply guarantees some delightfully obscure finds, it doesn’t mean you have to miss out on popular brands or your favorite shops either. The site unofficially represents over 100,000 stores and brands, which means you can also follow a large shop like Etsy, knowing that you are going to see products other Svpply users have deemed worthy.

It’s even possible to shop locally and forgo shipping costs by narrowing your search to stores in a city near you. San Francisco, for example, has been divided into subsections including the Castro, Mission, Marina and Chinatown districts, so you can plan a strategic day of analog shopping.

Resistance is futile when it comes to the stresses of holiday shopping, but logging on to Svpply.com today can provide some relief while fostering an addiction. Buy yourself some starry lights and remember the joy of crafting the ultimate wish list — just remember to do some shopping for your friends and family as well.