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Social shopping with ShopTogether

Jeff Swanson — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 05:24:56 +0000

In a previous post, I mentioned that one of the advantages of shopping offline is the social environment it creates. Social shopping is evolving online, however, with technolgy like ShopTogether from DecisionStep.

ShopTogether allows users to share their online shopping experience with others. You can view products at the same time and have a live chat in the meantime. ShopTogether also has capabilities with Sites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter that lets you share product links for friends to join in.

Some Sites already using ShopTogether include Charlotte Russe, Rugsale.com and NetShops. Visit one of these domains and try it our for yourself.

How are you personally branded online?

Jeff Swanson — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:44:28 +0000

Beware youngsters. No place is safe. Everywhere you socialize online, you are branding yourself. You might not be aware of it now, but if you’re planning a professional career in the future, prospective employers are almost assuredly going to google your name to see what they can find out about you.

When you interact with others on social sites such as MySpace and Facebook, it’s for all the world to see. Some of these sites protect your ramblings by allowing invites only, but it’s important to be aware of what others can and cannot associate with you.

So, for all of you business college students out there, keep things reasonable and try not to exploit your latest Spring Break photos with the rest of humanity. It might be deciding factor in a second interview.

We're social animals online and offline

Jeff Swanson — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:50:40 +0000

It was only a matter of time until the once static Internet gave birth to a social haven. We’re naturally social beasts. We want to interact and be part of something. This is why we join groups and conform to cliques with similar interests. Now, we fulfill some, but not all of our social needs online through reviews, forums, blogs and sites like Facebook.

If my above ramblings are accurate, it’s no wonder that over 85% of all sales are made in a physical store. We know that users like to use the internet as research tool, but why buy online when the action is at the store.

We want to be in a social environment when we’re shopping. We can try to imitate it online with reviews, ratings and other user generated content, but this will never replace the environment of a brick and mortar store. You can be around people, see what they’re buying, try out products and who knows – maybe you’ll even run into a friend.

At least that’s my theory.