Who's Your Buddy? A New Social Shopping Site

A new e-commerce site called Buddy Shopping that lets consumers peruse products online simultaneously with friends launched today with the promise to offer a viable new channel for Web shop owners.

Though there are features specific to the site that e-tailers can take advantage of — which we'll cover after we explain how the site works — most online shop owners won't have to do a thing to be included in the Buddy Shopping service. That's because consumers are searching online the way they regularly do, so any marketing efforts, such as organic or paid search, will still lead them to you. The difference is that they are able to do so with others in real-time.

The site, dubbed a "social netshopping" service by CEO Todd Kelly, combines e-commerce, social networking, instant messaging and the sharing of merchandise.

"Online shopping hasn't changed much since its inception. Merchants put up a Web site, make it secure, you browse, you put something in your cart and click buy," said Kelly. "What we realized is that the collaborative nature of the experience is missing online. Especially now that people are buying luxury items, things are more sophisticated than just doing a price search. So we allow people to co-shop with friends and family to get their opinions, like a live review, and we are completely community-based."

How It Works
What he means by community-based is that you can create both private and public shopping communities. Private groups offer you control over who joins and views the group's information, while public ones let you tap into the Buddy Shopping knowledge base.

For instance, if you don't want people to see what you're buying them for Christmas, you could create a private group to keep out certain nosy people on your list. If, however, you need help buying a snowboard either for yourself or someone else, you could join a snow sports community and get members to shop with you and help you pick out appropriate features and gear.

Social Netshopping: Savvy Shoppers Do It Simultaneously.

(Click for larger image.)

The heart of the service is the co-shopping application, which is designed to let you browse sites online in real-time with other people through a split-screen browser. It offers an integrated customized IM application for communication. Buddies, such as friends and family, can be added to your list permanently, while community members and co-shop invitees are added just for the duration of a shopping session.

Another major feature of the site is the "closet" function, which is part of the co-shopping application. You can store, categorize, search and inspect your own — and others — items. To put an item in your closet, you simply drag and drop visual thumbnails that include all the product information from the site's pane or from other's closets. So, for example, if you store all the stuff you want for Christmas in your closet, a friend can simply click on an item to buy it for you.

This also works in tandem with the collaborative nature of the site, says Kelly, because if you're looking for a particular type of product, you can do a search and if someone in the community has one stored in their closet, you can engage them in a discussion about it, in essence, getting a "live review."

What's In It For You
Now that you've got the low-down on how the site works, let's highlight ways Web shop owners can take advantage of Buddy Shopping. One approach is to use the community feature to market your online store.

"Usually small shop owners have a loyal customer base," said Kelly. "They can set up their own community and ask people to join. This way you could offer repeat customers a virtual tour of a new product line before it's available to the general public or offer them promotions through this approach. You can have up to 10 people follow you during a shopping session, or do it one-on-one." So, say if you're a florist, and a customer can't get to the shop to decide on arrangements and wants personal service, you can shop with him or her online, show them your choices, offer information, and let them select what they want.

Another way to get to interested shoppers quicker through the Buddy Shopping system is by buying a listing on the site's integrated search. "This search allows people to quickly find people who sell shoes," says Kelly, "instead of getting the origin of shoes and all the other information that would come up in a regular search, and we sell placements on that list."

There will also be what Kelly calls "push marketing." Eventually, the site will showcase three products a week from various shop owners, says Kelly. "We're hoping that by building user profiles," he said, "we can make it contextual." Another feature called "Window Shopping" lets members set merchant preferences and gives them permission to send them promotions, such as recommended items.

Additionally, the site will have display ads, and will be using video ads in its integrated video player, said Kelly. And, early next year the site plans to have mobile advertising in play. "It's commonly known that people do research online, then go buy in the actual offline store. We think Buddy Shopping is a good vehicle for doing that research, and eventually we'll have a "mobile" closet. So if a person has lawn mowers or coats in there, they can send all that product info to their phone so they have it when they go into the store," said Kelly. "Or a merchant can send them a 10 percent coupon to incite them to go visit the offline store."

Finally, if you want to be included on the Buddy Shopping merchant list, you can go to the support section, click on "contact us," and request that their site be added by submitting their company name and URL.

Michelle Megna is managing editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.

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