In light of rumors that Apply might buy the Fancy, I decided it was time to check this site out. Especially since I’ve let my Pinterest boards go fallow, I wondered if the Fancy would inspire me to a higher level of engagement. The welcome page says “discover amazing stuff, collect the things you love, unlock crazy good deals.” So, that is what I decided to expect.

Discover Amazing Stuff

The feed of products on the homepage (also viewable in slideshow format) offered a quick introduction to what the Fancy is all about. Namely, really cool products. What drew me into the Fancy is that it’s essentially an easy way to shop for cool things. And I’m big on shopping. For me, window shopping – whether online or brick & mortar – is a pleasurable pastime. I mostly buy apparel and I didn’t find much clothing that enticed me; but when I travel I love to hit up museum gift shops (especially the MoMa design store in SoHo) just to see the cool, random things they offer, and the Fancy provided that experience for me online.

Collect the Things You Love

I love that everything is for sale. This is actually how I used to use Pinterest: to catalogue things on the internet I wanted to buy. Then Pinterest became all about creating boards full of pretty images and cute quotes; inspiration, I suppose, at least among the people I follow. But that’s just not me. [Side note: The share feature is incredibly robust. Check it out.] 

Unlock Crazy Good Deals

The Deals section entices you to “fancy something you like and unlock a special reward” Most of the brands/stores I hadn’t heard of. So they gain exposure and as a shopper I can feel good about finding things others may not have discovered. In the Sales section I found a $4,200 watch that… didn’t seem to be on sale. It turns out those are the items you can buy through the Fancy, rather than an external site. Interestingly enough, all of the things I wanted to buy were available through the Fancy. Does that make me their target user?

I tried to find one thing on the Fancy that I could NOT spend money on, and it was virtually impossible. Nearly every single image I clicked on, no matter how improbable, had a price. Then I “fancied” a photo from an online magazine and the “buy now” option appeared, though it only linked back to the website. [Side note: to me it would make more sense to say "find it" for things not hosted on Fancy and "buy now" for things that are. Even if you click "buy now" and the item is available elsewhere, you still have to go through a few more clicks and that's not "buy now"; that's "buy eventually."]

Tl;dr

I really enjoyed my time spent on the Fancy, and I appreciate that it’s a super easy way to find cool things to buy. Ultimately I don’t expect this to be a regular internet habit, simply because it’s a better discovery method for objects than apparel, and that’s less my speed.

What’s your experience been with the Fancy? And if you’ve used both the Fancy and Pinterest, which one do you like better?

Photos via Fast Company, my Fancy catalog, the Fancy.