Referral (customer-get-customer) programs are probably nearly as old as word of mouth itself, but they are still the simplest and most effective solution to leveraging word of mouth – the most powerful marketing channel out there. As someone...
Online private shopping clubs like Gilt and Vente-privée (directory here) are perhaps the most successful incarnations of social shopping. Whilst they don’t typically offer reviews, recommendations, registries or co-browsing, they are built on...
I believe the future of social commerce will be mobile. Soon we’ll see the emergence of location-based apps that do crowdsourced deal aggregation and collaborative filtering to deliver compelling shopping recommendations in the field. One...
Another sign of the mainstreaming of social commerce. Magento, the popular open-source (with commercial option) ecommerce web platform (Nespresso, 3M, Samsung, Lenovo) has launched a Facebook Connect extension ($99) to enable social shopping...
Stylefeeder is a social shopping site that works like a personal shopping assistant, picking out personal recommendations for clothes, shoes, jewellery and accessories based on stuff you like, and the stuff people with similar taste profiles to you...
With the number of social commerce software vendors multiplying, here’s an evolving directory of social commerce software and vendors. Know any more ? Comment below or use the contact form to send us details (name of software, vendor, and...
On the back of Vente-Privée’s commercial success, a number of invitation-only Private Shopping Clubs have been popping up around the globe selling designer and luxury goods (typically end of season, overstock, and sample sale) online at...
A year old, but still useful: A table from socialmediatrader.com, on top social shopping (qua product reviews) sites. The article notes that whilst small, social shopping site traffic jumped 477% last year (2008). Tribesmart.com and pronto.com...
Shopping can be a very social activity; in fact it’s the favorite social activity for teens. So why does social shopping (co-browsing, wishlists, group-buying…) online have such a chequered history? Remember Smackshopping...
The ants are back! In 2001 letsbuyit.com, a sucessful shopping platform, had to declare bankruptcy spectacularly. Now it is back with a new business concept: a mixture of social shopping and price comparison. Users can exchange opinions about...
So I’ve been reviewing the social commerce landscape for the last month – customer reviews, deal feeds, shopping widgets, social shopping… But there is one social commerce application I’ve yet to cover, and it’s is...
I’m enjoying Woot, the popular Group Buy social commerce store – with a bit of attitude. Woot sells one just product a day at a deep discount – and lets shoppers discuss that item. It started out as an employee-store / market...