Will social shopping revolutionize our shopping experience?

Social shopping has recently become an extremely popular way of online shopping. People simply discovered the benefits they get combining two favorite online activities: shopping and social networking.

Who benefits from consumer-centric shopping?

I can think of a number of benefits for both consumers and retailers, but since social shopping is first of all customer oriented, let's dwell on them first.

- As a user you create a showcase of your internet findings and share information about products, prices, deals and so on, which helps others find what they need on the web

- This info gathered by other users can help you make up your mind if you are not sure what to buy, where and at what cost

- You can browse thousands of items from numerous manufacturers, dealers instead of spending much time on standard google search. Sorted categories and user tags narrow your search and make the process faster and easier

- If you are looking for something which is really hard-to-find, social shopping communities can help you to find that thing basing on other users' recommendations.

What about those who sell? If you are a small online retailer of something unique, or you are just a new name, word-of-mouth advertising on the web will definitely boost your popularity and help you to increase sales revenue. Luckily for you, the web is full of those who are keen on social shopping, love to let their fingers do the talking and buying (and sometimes forget that their credit cards are not unlimited, but this is already another story).

Social shopping diversity

There's a number of popular social shopping network communities offering their users an opportunity to store their findings online and share them with the rest of the world. Based on one model, they still have some own features trying to distinguish themselves from others. Those like, say, Kaboodle.com or Wists.com are aimed at gathering crowds of people in one place to swap shopping ideas. Kaboodle lets users collect information from the web and store it on the list that can be shared with others. It simplifies shopping by making it easier for people to find items they're interested in and by allowing users to share recommendations with one another. Wists provides a way to find interesting stuff on the web and visually bookmark it. You can also browse within the Wists community and bookmark other peoples' finds, if you want.

But if we take, for example, Pikaba.com, that says 'all you have to do is ask', this social shopping network provides a platform not only for users (customers), but also for vendors bringing them together in one place. It also claims that the resource will give you the best price on the web which is achieved by means of vendors' competition and uniting users with similar shopping wishes in groups to provide them a good discount (no matter what you want to buy: a new or used PS3 console, Honda Civic, iPhone etc).

In any case, the power of social networking is definitely growing and the inevitable influence of social shopping websites on consumer's buying behavior and purchasing decisions is one of the emerging trends revolutionizing our shopping experience.