Thanks to new shopping websites, there is little need to go outside anymore-except to show off what you bought. Time Magazine included four on their latest list of the 50 best websites: Iliketotallyloveit.com, Omiru, NextTag and LookyBook.
At number three, Iliketotallyloveit.com truly leverages the new intention economy (which can basically be summed up as: You like it? I buy it.) Their tagline is “Products you didn’t know you wanted but…” (fill in the blank with: your friend got it and now you just HAVE to have it.) Like other social shopping sites we reported on last August (Kaboodle, Zlio, Stylehive, StyleFeeder…), the site lets members can add cool items and vote on the things they love. Past favorites on Iliketotallyloveit include the MacBook Pro, a transparent canoe, the Nintendo Wii, and aspirin. From Time:
Shoppers post photos of items they like, then solicit opinions and comments from others. The most popular items bubble to the top, serving as a way to spot trends early.
While we’re not sure about the Aspirin trend, social shopping sites definitely let youth all over the world guide global trends. Teens and twenty-somethings trust their friends opinions above anyone else’s. These sites automate the word of mouth process, making it easy to broadcast your own fashion sense, or make sure you aren’t a fashion victim. ThisNext is taking this a step further by integrating with Facebook’s community, essentially doing what Beacon tried to, but on an opt-in basis.
Slightly lower down on Time’s list at number four is Omiru-a shopping blog that polls readers on trends and gives advice to dressing dilemmas. The polling, posting, and answering of questions allows readers to interact with the site’s many bloggers. NextTag, a no-frills site that filters results for products and provides product reviews for users, ranked 22nd. LookyBook, number 35, is more like a virtual dressing room, letting users (or their avatar, rather) try on looks. They can create picture books of products, which other can comment on, and even click on a book to buy it from an online retailer like Amazon. This direct-to-purchase link creates a robust e-commerce back-end behind social networks.
Social shopping sites will continue to thrive in our hyperconnected consumer culture and will be driven by the after-1980 set. This group lives and breathes on social networks, and uses them constantly to share and solicit opinions-everything from “what should I take for a headache?” to “where can I get an invisible boat?” Anyone that sells a product online should stand up, log on, and take note of these sites.
