Social Shopping? An Oxymoron like “Windows Works”?
December 21st, 2006 by Robert Yeager
This article posted over at R/WW caught my attention. Actually, this is something I’ve been pondering since earlier this year when I added certain social features in Cooqy: Is their really anything such as “Social Shopping”?
If you define “Social Shopping” in the context of other social websites like MySpace, then there would need to be elements of meeting new people for the purpose of shopping together. Based on this definition, I would disagree that there is such an activity as shopping socially. I mean really, have you ever grabbed a stranger off the street and asked them to go shopping with you to the mall?
Even the discovery phase of shopping is unlikely to be a social experience, in the sense of getting useful information about what to buy from strangers. The social circle from which you are likely to receive tips about things you might like to buy is probably limited to your existing circle of family and friends. External input likely only comes from marketing sources (ads on the Internet , TV, print).
The analysis phase of shopping is the one point where you are most likely to seek input from strangers, in the form of product reviews and seller reviews. But does this fall under the moniker of “Social Shopping”. I don’t believe so.
As I mentioned, I have experimented with different forms of social shopping tools within Cooqy, like tagging. Turns out that none of these features were ever used by anyone. Thinking that my ideas and/or designs were flawed, the features were redesigned several times. Still nobody used them. The final incarnation, the Message Forum feature (located in the bottom layer of tabs), was meant to allow eBay shoppers to get help and exchange messages with others. Nada. Instead, I now use the mechanism as a system admin tool, to communicate information about major changes to Cooqy’s users.
I conclude that the term “Social Shopping” is an oxymoron…a meaningless combination of words that doesn’t represent reality. Moreover, the business opportunity for incorporating social features into the shopping experience is probably limited to leveraging product and seller reviews. The companies profiled in the R/WW post probably have a tough row to hoe ahead.
5 Responses to “Social Shopping? An Oxymoron like “Windows Works”?”
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I talk to people all the time when I go to the mall … I feel very social!
;)
Interesting and disruptive idea, but I’m not convinced especially regarding the discovery phase. I’m pretty sure we need some social tools to unhide products from the classic search engines.
When I wanted to buy a new desk chair, for instance, it was really difficult for me to use Google / Yahoo to discover those products: I’m in France, and merchants that sell office stuff don’t have really good and SEO optimized websites… When going to shopping engines, few merchants for office stuff were present, so I have almost no choice.
I imagine a social network where people could add the products they like, but also could promote them. It would be a real benefit for shoppers.
I don’t expect this social network to be successful for computing or electronic where they are already some really good resources online, but could be really a killer-app to shop furniture, clothes, decoration…
Thanks for the great feedback!
I agree that using search engines for shopping is an exercise in futility.
I’m starting to build a decentralized social network platform via widgets…I will try to incorporate some of your feedback into its design.
I base major buys on review sites that are matured and well established for their specified market. This is usually found through googling.
In big forums, there’s usually a trading section, but I’ve only bought stuff there once or twice and there’s not much ’social’ interaction involved beyond determining that the member who’s selling is not some fly by night swindler.
I don’t quite get what sort of social shopping you’re referring to but for me at least, nothing beats the user submitted reviews in Amazon.com many of which are fun to read in and of themselves.
There’s also a UK mobile phone review site that allows something similar to Amazon. I guess that’s the best model out there. People usually are interested in specific stuff when the time is right to buy them and I don’t think anyone would spend all their free time ‘digging’ different products just for the heck of it. I’d be bored to death in the first 10 seconds.
[…] sure whether social networking and shopping can coexist, here’s a great blog about whether social shopping exists.) A topic for the future is reviewing many of the Amazon.com community features that sure […]