'We're humans, we're aspirational by nature': Reel CEO Daniela Corrente on what consumers are saving money for

Piggy banks aren't especially in vogue, but the idea behind them sticks. By saving up a little over the long haul, you can pool quite a bit of money — enough, in Reel's experience, to pay for a luxury handbag, furniture or some electronics.

The personal finance app lets customers save up for specific items. Users pick something and commit to wiring Reel a few dollars a day for it, setting an enticing timeline into motion. Put aside $5 a day for 12 weeks, for instance, and Reel will take care of shipping you that Apple Watch you've had your eye on.

It's a win-win situation, in CEO and co-founder Daniela Corrente's telling. Customers save responsibly for stuff that may have felt was outside their price range, and companies working with Reel create a new touchpoint for cost-concerned customers (the only loser might be credit card companies, which Corrente doesn't feel too bad about; she had her fair share of credit card debt in college).

"Many of our customers have gotten their first luxury handbag through our website. So we're actually converting them and giving brands the opportunity to leverage our platform," Corrente said on the Modern Retail Podcast.

The average customer, she added, has two or three "active reels" they're saving for.

With the pandemic continuing to constrict people's social lives, purchases for fashion -- Reel's first vertical when it launched in 2016 -- have dipped. Meanwhile, the company accelerated its expansion to other categories. "Our priorities has humans have varied, because we're 24/7 at home now. A lot of us, we don't necessarily have a house that's fit to work from," Corrente said. "All of a sudden, [users are] investing more in making your house prettier, more accommodating for working from home, investing more in fitness from home... those have all been categories that have catapulted since this happened."