Joyus reportedly raises $11.5M in funding

Video online shopping site how now raised over $19 million

(Updated to reflect comment from Joyus)

People are inherently visual. If you need any proof of that, just look at the invention of the music video. Listening to music wasn't enough; we had to see something, almost as if that would prove to us that it was good. There is just something about seeing that image that seems to stay with people, much longer than other senses. 

And so it goes with online shopping as well. Simply learning about the product and what it does is not enough. People want to be sold with a video, telling them why they need to buy this particular product, and why it is special.

Video online shopping site Joyus does just that, and it has now raised $11.5 million in its second round of funding, it was reported by AllThingsD Sunday night. 

The round was led by InterWest Partners and Time Warner Investments, with participation from existing investors, Accel Partners and Harrison Metal, also participated. Joyus previously received $7.9 million in seed funding from Accel Partners in August 2011, pushing the company's total raised to above $19 million.

Joyus founder Sukhinder Singh Cassidy has confirmed the funding round to VatorNews, saying that "the money will be used to scale distribution and team."

In addition to the new funding, it was also reported that Ido Leffler, co-founder of natural beauty brand Yes To, will be joining the board of directors at Joyus.

Atherton, California-based Joyus was founded  Cassidy in January 2011. The site works almost like an online home shopping network, where people are urged to buy products featured in short videos produced for the website.

In a previous interview with VatorNews, Cassidy described Joyus as “creating a premium social shopping experience on the Web.” The site is “storytelling through video.”

Each item available on Joyus is only on sale for a limited time through the platform. The videos that accompany the products can be shared on Facebook and Twitter.

So how does having an accompanying video help sell merchandise? Those who watch videos on the site buy 4.9 times more than those who don't, and the site converts sales at 5.15 times the rate of those who only browse the site.

"While we dont disclose customer and revenue numbers, we did do millions of views across hundreds of thousands of customers last year," Cassidy said. The company is now seeing 7 times the revenue from 2011 to 2012 "so we feel great about the growth we've seen in both views and monetization so far."

In June of 2012, Joyus purchased online artisan food market Foodzie, and renamed it Joyus Food. It was to become the fifth vertical on the website, alongside Joyus Apparel, Beauty, Home, and Lifestyle.

(Image source: https://www.joyus.com)