[ ABOVE: Diana True, right, and business partner Jasmine Ellis check out online fashions at Entourage Clothing & Gifts, Clemson // Photo credit: Charity Shaw ]
Upstate entrepreneurs plan to leverage the “Golden Age of Television” to let viewers buy the apparel of their favorite characters through their Clemson-born startup, Saw It on Screen.
The idea is to bridge the viewing experience with the shopping experience through a platform listing the clothing, jewelry and shoes worn by actors, according to Clemson senior business major Diana True, 21, and business partner and recent Clemson psychology graduate Jasmine Ellis, 23.
“The average commission on these purchases is 8 to 10 percent of the order,” said True, noting that leaves complicated responsibilities like payment and shipping up to the retailer. “The affiliations, forming the LLC, marketing and the myriad of other business needs are keeping us plenty busy in moving this into a profitable operation.”
The average American spends nearly five hours a day watching TV, according to the media research company Nielsen. That means entertainers parade apparel in front of viewers for the equivalent of two and half months of TV time – and big opportunities for Saw It on Screen. The pair are in the process of changing the name from “Saw It in the Movies” to “Saw It on the Screen” to broaden their scope, and plan to market via social media to men and women between 18 and 27 years old.
While the idea exists elsewhere on the Web, the pair plan to give their e-commerce platform a twist by letting producers and costume designers in on the action, drawing shoppers in with inside details about garment decisions and character development that add an extra element to shoppers.
“We want to talk with the costume designers and tell their stories, ask them, ‘Why did you choose to go this route?’” said Ellis, a recent psychology graduate. “In some shows, characters all wear the same thing. … It may not be the whole ensemble, but the idea behind it.”
True and Ellis connected at Clemson during a “How to Start a Start-up” class, and plan to leverage the school’s University Professional Internship Co-op program through the Arthur M. Spiro Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership. True, a full-time student, is paid for 160 hours of work on Saw It on Screen per year through the program, and the pair is in the process of determining the number and type of engineers and other support they need going forward.
They currently work out of the Clemson area, but that could change depending on what they need to build partnerships within the industry, said Ellis.
“The power players that we’re discussing are based in Los Angeles, but we’re in the process of figuring out all the elements that might go into that decision,” said Ellis, who hails from Charlotte. “For us to really get where we want to go, it would require getting connections with the producers, the costume designers, all of those people.”
