ReadWriteWeb's 5 Social Commerce Heros of 2010

So, it’s that time of year again, when trend predictions for 2011 are coming thick and fast, and commentators are publishing their “best of 2010” awards.

In this spirit, ReadWriteWeb has pronounced “social shopping” to be a top trend of 2010 in the US (with InternetRetailing predicting, on the back of analysis by Datamonitor firm Ovum, that the trend will take off in the UK in 2001), and listed 5 best of breed examples;

• Groupon (Daily Deals) Groupon CTO Ken Pelletier attributes the local deal site’s phenomenal growth to social sharing and word of mouth
• Woot (Real-Time Social Shopping); Now part of the Amazon, Woot is an online analogue of Groupon, offering one highly discounted item for sale each day, until either time or inventory runs out
• Social Currency (Location Check-ins); An American Express branded Foursquare app for sharing what you’re doing, where you’re doing it, what you’re buying, and what you’re still looking for
• Amazon (Facebook Shopping); Facebook shopping comes in one of two varieties; either the ability to execute transactions in Facebook without leaving the network or leveraging the open graph by integrating Facebook into traditional site-based e-commerce platforms, Amazon chose the latter, adding connectivity to Facebook in order to provide product suggestions based on likes and favorites pulled from users social graphs.
• RedLaser (Bar Code Scanning); Now part of eBay, but not technically social shopping (yet), Red Laser is a price comparison utility that scans product barcodes and tells you how much cheaper you can find them on eBay, Amazon and locally.  Social features are imminent