San Francisco based shopping app Wanelo has announced the launch of its “Buy on Wanelo” button, giving consumers the opportunity to buy directly within the app from over 200 brands.

Touted as “a mall on your phone”, Wanelo has attracted some 1.5 million to 2 million visitors a month over the past year and a half, according to comScore.

Launched in 2012, Wanelo previously required consumers to leave the app to complete a purchase on a brand’s mobile website. With the introduction of “Buy on Wanelo”, shoppers can place in-app orders, leaving Wanelo to pass on order details to retailers to ship the product.

Retailers such as Urban Outfitters and Nasty Gal will be among the brands making up the 500,000 products available for purchase within the app. For Urban Outfitters, which has nearly three million followers on Wanelo, the partnership is a rare occasion when it has allowed a third party in the U.S. to sell its products.

“We have been enamored with it as a social shopping network for a while now,” said Jim Davis, Urban Outfitters’ director of interactive marketing. “And I’m of the belief that the closer to discovery we can push the buying opportunity, the higher conversion will be.”

The future of retail

Other brands that have jumped on the Wanelo bandwagon include American Apparel, Rag & Bone and British brand River Island, appealing to Wanelo’s majority female millennial audience.

“With ‘Buy on Wanelo’, we’re giving users the frictionless checkout experience they’ve been wanting, and brands are eager to participate because they simply want to sell”, said Wanelo founder and CEO Deena Varshavskaya.

“The future of retail will have a single dominant platform for shopping, and that’s what Wanelo is building with today’s launch bringing us one step closer.”

Previously taking a small affiliate fee for purchases users made on other sites after finding a product on the app, Wanelo will take an average of 10% to 15% cut of purchases made inside the app.

Sellers that allow in-app buying via Wanelo will have their products prioritised in search results and product feeds.

Wanelo joins a flurry of companies looking to expand mobile and social commerce which includes Pinterest’s Promoted Pins, Facebook’s “Buy” button and Michael Kors’ recent efforts to make Instagram shoppable.