Alice.com, the retail platform for household goods, has raised $4 million in a Series B round according to an SEC filing. According to the filing, the company is trying to raise an additional $2 million in this round. The startup had previously raised $4.3 million in Series A funding from Kengonsa Capital Partners and DaneVest Capital in November of 2008.
Launched in June, Alice.com is an open platform for consumer packaged goods manufacturers, like Procter & Gamble, to sell directly to consumers instead of going through retail channels like Target or Wal-Mart. On the consumer side, Alice.com lets users create a profile of their household (i.e. how many adults, kids, babies) and then the site will keep track of items and reminds users with emails when they are running low and need to reorder. Each shipment is bundled together in a single ‘Alice’ box, delivered directly to the consumer’s door, with no shipping costs.
As we wrote in our review, we think Alice.com has potential to take off thanks to competitive pricing, an well-understood business model (the site makes money via advertising) and experienced entrepreneurs at the helm of the startup. Co-founders and serial entrepreneurs Brian Wiegand and Mark McGuire have managed to sell three companies in the past +10 years, most recently flipping social shopping service Jellyfish to Microsoft (which it later used to create Live Search Cashback).
I am sure amazon is sniffing this one
Its similar to Alibaba or any other online shopping market place. What new this gone offer
Congrats Brian, Mark, and David! I had the privilege of meeting the Alice guys a few months ago, I’m betting on them to knock Alice out of the park.
I agree with Ash.
I fail to see the point of this website.
I logged into Alice and picked the Tide that was featured on the homepage. 100oz for $13.88. My local Kroger: $10.88 + $0.85 tax = $11.73 which I purchased about 20 minutes ago.
Our big friendly retailers will ban the supplier if the price is less via this channel.
Sample error?
@Dan,
I have no argument with sample error. Clearly, a sample of one is statistically invalid.
I did spend some (20+ minutes) on Alice looking at other products and all were more expensive than my local Kroger or Target.
Convenience?
Alice has replaced my walmart shopping its so covenient and i dont have to go back to the store when i have forgotten something … I really love that they offer free shipping and reminders as well as throw in a couple of coupons for me all without hassle..alice and i go together
Why can’t marketing people talk like humans? They always sound like robots.
Dave, how dare you ask such basic questions? They obviously have no way of competing on price. My guess is that you will pay more for the pleasure of using their site:)
so how do they manage to find the cheapest price on the market, deliver it to your home for free and also make profit?
Advertising, says the blog post.
i have checked the prices in the alice website and compare after with Target.
well Target is still much cheaper !!!
The prices offered on alice.com are horrible … if you live in a suburb with easy access to a BJs/Costco/Sams. My wife and I compared a “bread basket” of items, starbucks coffee, pampers cruisers, old spice deodorant, mach 3 razor blades, ivory soap, optifree contact solution, cascade dishwasher detergent and bounty paper towels. These items were locally available for 22% less (based on our receipts from the last shopping trip). If you factor in time and gas, it *might* be worth it, but Joe consumer will never make those kinds of value judgments; he’ll see what appears to be outrageous prices and balk.
I am not sure the increased pricing warrants the potential convenience. http://www.trendslate.com
Don’t like it. Not that good as expected.
I did spend some (20+ minutes) on Alice looking at other products and all were more expensive than my local Kroger or Target.
Giving Alice credit, it’s one of the few old-school ecommerce websites to get funded… perhaps one of the last? (Where do you go after household items?)
Love the idea of Alice BUT found the same to be true as others above have stated about price. My kid’s flosser were .80 cents more on Alice than what I pay at Target. Not gonna work for me!
Congrats to Mark and team. Alice.com is on its way to major success. If they could get Amazon’s distribution they could easily hit much lower prices yet.
I heard of Alice through a VC. Interesting concept. Kozmo hear we go again.