Social Shopping and Mobile

Posted: March 22nd, 2010 | Author: Julio Hernandez-Miyares | Filed under: Mobile, Startup, Technology |

Trying an experiment in Product development this coming week. I spoke to my daughter about some ideas surrounding “Social Shopping” over the week to gather what she thought of the  idea. Of course, anything to do with shopping will immediately get her attention no matter how crazy the actual Product Idea may be. It is enlightened self interest on her part. With no money, no source of money and little chance of that changing anytime soon, if she needs to hear a pitch and go through the observations of the shopping habits of teenage girls, all she knows is she will be in a shopping environment with someone who has money (me) and who is a sucker for any whim she may have (once again me).

So what is Social Shopping one may ask? Well , I would suspect it is the antithesis of how I shop at least when it is of the bricks and mortar variety. Of course when shopping online like on Amazon I do make liberal use of the Reviews to guide my purchase (or non purchase depending on the gist of the reviews). In the bricks and mortar variety shopping experience which is still the predominant means of shopping, the only thing social about me is making sure no one gets in my way to obtain the article I have already decided to purchase and similarly on the mad dash to the checkout line. Thankfully I am the exception instead of the rule. With the ubiquity of online social networking, the exploding smartphone engagement with all sorts of services tied together including photos, video, search, location services and the penchant to shop of teenage girls regardless of all messaging that they should deal with more outer worldly things, we are poised for the killer app that will tap into all of these forces to magnify the shopping experience so that the romp to “the mall” can take on the force of the virtual romp to the Mall.

What are some of the characteristics of this presumed killer application.

• Doesn’t introduce yet another Social Network but leverages the existing winners in the space, Facebook, Twitter specifically and presumably FourSquare in the Location based services realm
• Doesn’t get in the way of the activity of social shopping so it has to be very easy to use and unobtrusive. Outside of quick checkin or setup.
• A tough one; has to aggressively protect privacy but still maintain flexibility allowing the user to easily define how restrictive or open to make the Social Shopping “event” . With the main demographic being teenage girls, adoption would be impaired if parents caught wind of gaps in privacy that could put their child at risk of the perverts in society.
• Is patterned after Web mashup but optimized for speed. Checkin or definition of shopping event, tying in messages/photos and all forms of communication revolving around that event. Syndication to only the chosen network of
  users party to that event whether in person or virtually via the social network.
• Acts like a persistent store of the “event” after the fact. ie The pictures of posing with different outfits

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