Shopwave: Shop Via Text Messaging

Impulse-driven online shoppers know the joys of want-click-get more than most. But Will Robison — New York-based creator of text-to-buy virtual marketplace Subports — had the hunch to take the process offline and directly into shoppers’ cell phones. Subports’ mobile model has two-fold retail appeal: Sellers (see: Brooklyn-based stylist Christian Joy) have the opportunity to customize orders and drop-ship goods without the burden of mass production and otherwise inevitable overstock. Meanwhile, shoppers can shop product-coded goods wherever they happen to find them — from pop-up shops to gallery openings and concerts — with just the click of a few phone keys.