Social Shopping: social networking meets online shopping

[mandy]

Sites like ThisNext and a handful of services like Kaboodle.com, Wists.com and StyleHive.com are spearheading a new category of e-commerce called “social shopping,” that tries to combine two favorite online activities: shopping and social networking. These sites are hoping to ride the MySpace wave by gathering people in one place to swap shopping ideas. And like MySpace, the sites are designed for both browsing and blogging, with some shopping-related technology twists included.

Social shopping is just the latest solution to a chronic problem for online retailers and shoppers: many shoppers aren’t sure what to buy, but they know they won’t find it on the sites of mainstream retailers like Macy’s, Amazon or Wal-Mart.

Online retailers often refer to this as the “product discovery” problem, but it might better be referred to as online retailing’s Teflon piñata, so many times have entrepreneurs tried to crack it...

full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/11/techno...f=business

[mandy]

A related article:

The American Marketing Association is claiming that social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are missing out on a sleigh-full of easy profits this holiday season because they don't sell products (just loads of advertising) through their sites.

An AMA survey found that a veritable crowd, 47 percent of consumers, said they would use social networks to discuss and find holiday gift ideas; and 29 percent would buy products through those sites; 51 percent said they'd look for discounts on social networks, 51 percent said they would download coupons and 18 percent said they would read or write product reviews...

full article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=19&entry_id=11274

[BellisimaJ.]

On the face of it, it sounds great. Time will tell. I think it is definitely something that ecomm bus owners should utilize as a part of their marketing program.

An AMA survey found that a veritable crowd, 47 percent of consumers, said they would use social networks to discuss and find holiday gift ideas; and 29 percent would buy products through those sites; 51 percent said they'd look for discounts on social networks, 51 percent said they would download coupons and 18 percent said they would read or write product reviews...

:blinkie:

Impressive stats!

Good article, Mandy--TY! :turkey2:

[mandy]

A related article:

Until recently, most designers of e-commerce sites have concentrated on catering to individual shoppers -- what the research firm Gartner calls the "solo hunter."

Now, however, a new breed of online shopper -- the "social gatherer" -- is emerging who is looking for more interaction with people when they shop...

"These vendors are, in a substantial sense, 'leaving money on the table,'"...

full article: http://ecommercetimes.com/story/fBwpCqvp...lace.xhtml

[mandy]

A related article:

For many who love to shop, the next best things to buying merchandise are browsing and chatting about merchandise—planning the next strike, so to speak. The relentless and continual evolution of social networking and consumer-generated content, together commonly referred to as Web 2.0, is enabling Internet shoppers to move beyond transactions to achieve shop-talk unlike anything they’ve ever experienced. It’s one thing to talk with a couple friends over dinner and get their opinions on the latest goods, but it’s something else entirely to get recommendations from and provide feedback to a couple hundred-thousand fellow consumers.

Social shopping sites enable just that, and in ways comparison shopping sites don’t and web retailer sites can’t. Social shopping sites connect consumers and give rise to discussions and recommendations (personal, one-to-one, as well as automated, based on users’ likes and dislikes), unlike comparison shopping sites, which typically focus on weighing product prices, attributes and merchants’ reputations. Further, they are independent of e-retailer sites and e-retailer-managed consumer product reviews and thus negate in the minds of many shoppers concerns about a dearth of negative reviews or an abundance of positive ones...

full article: http://www.internetretailer.com/article.asp?id=22582