Boost: Introducing Tags, an infrastructure for distributed commerce.

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Web1 commerce.

When I was 15 years old, a friend of mine gave me a software license he had purchased after attending an e-commerce convention. The license was from StoresOnline and it granted you the magical powers needed to launch an online store. You could add products, upload images, accept credit cards and make money without ever leaving your desk.

Without any manufacturing experience or startup capital, I’d go on to launch a star gifting company. Gift your loved one a star in the sky and get a personalized certificate in the mail. Within a few months, I was making thousands of dollars. As a sophomore in high school, this was exhilarating. The internet and e-commerce specifically, had ushered in a new generation of entrepreneurship by drastically reducing the barriers to entry, for both sellers and buyers.

Web2 commerce.

Today doing business online is commonplace. You can create a store with a few clicks, share a payment link with friends and even launch your own app. But as e-commerce has proliferated, it has simultaneously consolidated. E-commerce is shackled to a domain name where rent is due to the internet’s landlords. Websites have become the new brick and mortar where window shopping, returns, and valuable experiences can occur. But where your store exists and where purchase potential originates remain in different places.

In 2020, e-commerce reached $4.29 trillion dollars representing only 20% of all global retail sales. Yet on average, 7 out of 10 checkouts are abandoned. Trillions of dollars are lost to friction as purchase intent weakens with distance, like an echo. For over 40 years, the fundamental pillars of e-commerce have remained the same. Advertise in one place and sell in another. But the world has changed, how people discover has changed, and a faster, easier, and ubiquitous method of commerce to accommodate that change has yet to emerge.

Web3 commerce.

Web3 is many things, but what’s striking to me above and beyond the technological implications of the blockchain, is the consideration it places on decentralization, permissionless environments, and transparency. These are paramount values of the future of the internet and everything that is contained within it. But what will commerce look like in this new era of the web? How can commerce move at the speed of information? Can we truly decentralize commerce? For the past few years, I’ve been working towards that vision, and today we at Boost are pleased to introduce Tags, an infrastructure for distributed commerce.

Tags are encoded purchase coordinates. They’re like a store, transaction, and barcode in one. Each Tag is embedded with transactional data, so wherever you place a Tag becomes an instant and distributed point of sale. With Tags, your content is your commerce and your store exists where your community is paying attention. The world becomes your store and Tags are the ubiquitous, intelligent, and attributed points of sale that tether and monetize it.

You can scan, tap, text, see or say a Tag to activate a purchase instantly. Tags can appear as a QR code, as a button, a symbol in VR, or in written format as $BrandX, where X represents SKU. The various forms of the Tag are synonymous in nature — dissolving the walls between online and offline monetization — truly omnichannel and permissionless.

Brands can monetize offline by placing Tags on apparel, magazines, or packaging, as well as online by assigning Tags to influencers, embedding them into videos, and more. 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. You own your data, your audience, and your destiny.

Coming soon.

We’ll be officially launching with our 2.0 release in a couple of months! In the meantime, Creators can generate Tags for products and tipping to monetize omnichannel— no websites, no apps, no checkouts. At launch, we’ll be releasing scan-to-buy and tap-to-buy functionality, e-commerce integrations, support for crypto as a payment method and Web3 wallet integration. Until then, brands can reserve their Tag or contact us for a test drive.

We’re piloting with cutting-edge brands including $Parade, $Cometeer, $Doe, $Reckless, and $Therabody and enterprise clients like the $Lakers, the $NBA, and $FootLocker. We’re thrilled to welcome our investors, XRC Labs, Not Boring, Tiny Capital, Gaingels, Riverside Ventures, AntiFund, Elefund, and hundreds of strategic LPs, brands, and supporters in our mission to build the new barcode. We’ll be announcing the details of our latest seed round very soon.

Scan to buy.

Try scan to buy — direct to checkout.

Connect with us.

Next week, we’ll be hosting a Twitter Spaces to discuss the future of commerce with some special guests and answer any questions. We’ll also drop some free products to anyone tuning in, so keep an eye out on our Twitter and pre-register for a head start as products are limited.

The future of commerce is everywhere. A special thanks to my incredible team, devoted family, and friends, I’m forever grateful for your support. Finally, to all of the entrepreneurs, founders, associates, hustlers, and frens — keep building and keep your head up. If I can ever help anyone, just reach out. We’re also hiring! If you’re into fintech, commerce, or Web3, let’s build the future together.

Peace,
@dannyabas | dabas.eth

Twitter: @boost
Instagram: @boost
Website: https://boo.st