By Kate Hill

Staff Writer

In March 2019, Cazenovia High School Graduate Peter Burr, a member of the class of 2015, and his business partner Steven Petrocelli launched The Mall — a social e-commerce app designed to modernize online shopping.

The app allows users to browse, discover and shop unique fashion brands and products, while also giving them the opportunity to share their favorite styles and trends with friends.

Additionally, The Mall provides emerging brands with the opportunity to share their ideas and merchandise and build up their social following and customer base.

“[We launched in March], but we weren’t promoting it then, we were mostly fixing bugs and updating the app to make sure it was ready to be put out there,” said Burr, CEO of The Mall, Inc. “We really started having users download it at the beginning of the summer to see what they liked and didn’t like and to update the app accordingly.”

According to Burr, the app already has over 500 users and more than 30 contracted brands, each of which has a unique mission or story.

“All of the brands have to go through us to be onboarded to the platform,” Burr said. “We evaluate their products and inventory and [do our due diligence.]”

Eventually, Burr and Petrocelli hope to expand the app to feature backpacks, snowboards, skis, skateboards and other products with “trend value.”

The creators of The Mall believe that they have managed to successfully marry e-commerce and social media in a way that other platforms have failed to do.

“Instagram and other social media platforms are not places of business, as their shopping and advertising effectiveness have been blown out of proportion by an influx of fake accounts,” Burr said. “Today, anyone can buy likes and followers on Instagram, which skews the reality of the brand’s popularity or success . . . and doesn’t actually help the brand grow organically and make sales.”

According to Burr, The Mall, Inc. endeavors to bring value back to the “like” and the “follow.”

“We want to create meaningful discovery and browsing for users and make meaningful connections between users and brands,” Burr said.

Users of the app can repost products, create collections, “like” and comment on posts, follow their favorite brands, and share their style with friends.

An upcoming version of the app will also include a direct messaging feature, which is intended to allow users to build conversations around specific products and posts and help consumers to have greater confidence in their purchasing decisions.

The Mall also connects users and brands through “Discover Weekly,” an advertising feature that suggests brands and products to users based on their activity on the app.

All products on the app are available for secure in-app purchase through Stripe, a third party payment-processing firm.

“[Users] can just shop from brand to brand without constantly having to re-enter their payment information,” Burr said. “We think that’s a really cool aspect of our app.”

The Mall also provides a Shopify plug-in for direct integration between a seller’s Shopify account and their store profile on the app.

Burr and Petrocelli met at Dickinson College, where they both majored in international business and management and minored in economics.

They began working on the app a little over a year ago.

According to the partners, the idea for The Mall evolved from a shared desire to revitalize the social experience of shopping that was lost during the shift from brick-and-mortar stores to online shopping.

“Peter and I were reminiscing about the lost experience of going to the mall with our friends when we were younger,” Petrocelli said. “From these memories, we decided to build a modern mall that would serve our generation’s needs and recreate our fond memories for the younger generation. The next day we began building our dream in photoshop and have continued to progress exponentially in the next year. This project excites us because of the immense potential to influence society on a global scale and the satisfaction of our hard work paying off.”

Burr and Petrocelli raised a total of $150,000 in their hometown communities to get their project off the ground.

Today, The Mall, Inc. team also includes Marketing Content Director Lucais Marks and Senior Marketing Advisor Garret Clabeaux — another 2015 Cazenovia High School graduate.

Download the app in the iOS App Store.

An Android version of the app will be launched in the near future.

To learn more about The Mall, Inc. or to discuss adding a local brand to the app, visit themallapp.com or email [email protected].