Tumblr Now Offers a Commerce Service for Brands [VIDEO]

Coexist Digital has developed a commerce platform for Tumblr that allows users to buy products without ever leaving the page they’re on, with transactions handled by the payments startup Stripe.

Tumblr “stores” have popped up within the last few years, the first being the fashion retailer  Of A Kind’s Tumblr blog launched in November 2010, powered by Shopify’s shopping-cart technology.

While Pinterest is more known for having a direct relation to e-commerce, Coexist’s Dan Coe told AdAge, “The idea of being able to buy from a Tumblr blog was wildly exciting.”

Portland, Ore.-based Coexist is a digital agency focused on shopping experiences for brands like Bath & Body Works and C.O. Bigelow.

The Tumblr commerce platform is designed both for small businesses and brands. For the former, Coexist and Stripe would take a roughly 6% cut of sales through the platform, but the service would be free to use. In the case of brands, Coe envisions something more custom, such as a pop-up store where Tumblr followers could buy limited-edition goods that had been unveiled that week.

The first business to use the commerce platform is Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, which has 10 stores in Ohio and Tennessee and sells to wholesalers like Dean & Deluca and Whole Foods. It shipped more than $1 million of product through its website last year. Its Tumblr account launched last week, and items for sale are marked with a yellow dot, including a $32 ice-cream-sandwich collection.

The need to create commerce solutions for content based sites like Tumblr shows the relationship between creating content and making sales is even more tightly knit. Making the shopping and marketing experience more seamless for customers means they can buy directly when inspiration hits.