Fantasy Shopper turns window shopping into a social game where users can buy

A new venture backed by European Seed accelerator HackFWD has launched today. Fantasy Shopper is a new social shopping game where players discover and share the latest fashion from real-world online retailers. Look out shopping addicts this is seriously addictive.

On Fantasy Shopper, users spend Fantasy Money to buy virtual clothing, create outfits and stock out their virtual wardrobe. Launching first in the UK with over 100,000 virtual items from 40 retailers in clothes, accessories and sports goods, the game takes the users from shopping in London to other major world destinations. The game is pretty social as users get to share their purchases and create outfits.

The product has been developed for the last 12 months in Exeter, UK, and launches today after being run in closed beta for 3 months.

Chris Prescott, Fantasy Shopper CEO says “Our target audience is used to beautiful, feature-rich and well-developed products, so that’s the kind of a product we wanted to launch.”

The startup has HackFwd backing but also won two business contests earning £30,000.

While the user numbers in private beta were kept limited, some users collect up to 20 “Paydays” every day says Chris. Paydays are Fantasy Shopper’s hourly balance boosts that keep the users’ Fantasy Wallets healthy.

An API will be released.

CEO Chris Prescott studied computer science at Exeter University but dropped out and developed the idea of Fantasy Shopper alongside his other work. Chris and CTO Daniel Noz met exactly one year ago, after Chris had placed adverts looking for a co-founder to join him in Exeter. Dan moved from Germany two weeks later. At launch, the team is six people and hiring.