SXSW Start-Up Zarrly believes everything has a price…

Zaarly is a proximity based, real-time buyer powered market. With Zaarly, buyers make an offer for an immediate need and sellers cash in on an infinite marketplace for items and services they never knew were for sale. What’s your price?

So basically, you’re saying: “I will pay BLANK for BLANK.”  A more specific example would be: “I will pay $10 to anyone that brings me a grande, no foam soy chai latte in 10 minutes”.

During SXSW,  Zaarly mobile HQ (an RV behind the convention center) saw some really great things transpire. In a matter of 24 hours a new, buyer-powered, economy sprung up in Austin, Texas, and close to $10,000 in transactions occurred on the first day.

According to Zaarly, hundreds of buyers got what they wanted when they wanted it and hundreds of sellers cashed in on a whole new marketplace. Some of our favorite transactions worth mentioning:

• One person fulfilled Zaarly orders for a few hours and pledged all of his earnings to the Red Cross directed towards support in Japan.
• Someone in town for SXSWi paid $100 to have a burger from Casino El Camino delivered to his hotel room.
• Zaarly mobile HQ had a keg delivered using Zaarly and met an amazing Austonian.

Wow!  Zaarly facilitates online requests and turns them into in-person transactions! So who’s going down to Hermes to pick up my Birkin bag?  I couldn’t stop thinking about the fashionable possibilities, so I contacted Zaarly.

Macala: I stumbled upon Zaarly after a two day trip down the rabbit hole of SXSW content. VERY interesting concept. How do you think Zaarly would be of use to brands or retailers?  Or is it more of a person to person thing where I could say, “The Coyote Fur Micheal Kors vest for fall is sold out in Los Angeles.  Whoever could get it to me in the next day, I’ll pay X dollars to.” Or could a stylist say, “I’m dressing X celeb for a red carpet, I need X designer’s dress in a size 4. Whoever gets it to me will have the red carpet opportunity.”?

Jeff Morris, who works in marketing at Zaarly, shared these insights:

Zaarly: Both of your ideas are amazing applications of our technology. I had never personally considered the second example, but it would absolutely work… It’s genius, actually!

Brands and labels will eventually (if all goes according to plan) monitor Zaarly in real-time, and they will be competing to respond to offers. We believe that brands will have “Zaarly fulfillment teams” who dedicate themselves to fulfilling requests on the platform.

For fashion and clothing, I envision the platform being effective for:

• Real-time marketplace for high-end clothing rentals.
• While traveling, If I’m invited to a dinner party and I left my dress at home, Zaarly will be perfect.
• For high-end fashion, if I see a dress I love at a store, I might not have enough money to purchase it at shelf price. I can use Zaarly to bid for that dress in real-time. Maybe there is a nearby person who is tired of the dress and wouldn’t mind the cash.
• Hire personal shopper in real-time when you’re at the mall.

I am sure there are many other applications.

You can stalk them on Twitter: @Zaarly