FriendShopper Brings Online Shopping Social

FriendShopper.com is jumping on the retail social networking bandwagon with a service designed to connect consumers in a real-time, centralized environment.

FriendShopper.com allows users to manipulate integrated social tools like instant messaging and content sharing in a customized environment meant to simulate live shopping, observes Retailer Daily.

An online chat function duplicates real-life interaction among shoppers examining products. Friends can offer opinions, and a dialogue feature allows users to converse and share with multiple friends simultaneously. Notifications and thumbnail images appear anytime a friend shares an item with the user. FriendShopper’s search functionality gives shoppers the option to search retailers or specific products by keyword without leaving the website. Users can add their favorite stores to their FriendShopper profile using the bookmarklet.

An increasing number of retailers are directly offering customers social networking features, and several have launched their own “social shopping” platforms. Broadline retailer Sears Holding Company is a leader in this area. Using online technology, broadline retailer Sears Holding Corporation is enabling consumers to remotely connect and contribute to gift purchases.

The service, called givetogether, enables a group of customers to select and give a gift in four steps. The organizer or recipient can select any Sears product or service and create a group gift goal, and then invite contributors via email. Participants make online contributions via credit card without extra costs or fees. Progress toward the goal can be tracked online, and once the goal is met, the recipient receives an e-gift card that can be redeemed online or in person for the gift. Last year, Sears enabled customers to perform social shopping for prom dresses via the Facebook social networking site.

In addition, specialty young women’s apparel retailer Charlotte Russe is expanding its ShopTogether social shopping program. Partnering with technology firm DecisionStep, Charlotte Russe is adding connectivity to social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

ShopTogether allows groups of online customers to pick out and discuss items together in real time. From the ShopTogether toolbar, shoppers can send friends a link to a specific product or an invitation to shop through Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, email or IM. Once they accept the invitation, ShopTogether connects them for a joint online shopping session. Customers can chat, view products, collect mutual favorites and share ideas that help lead to buying decisions.

Other retailers who have been offering online social shopping functionality for a year or more include online technology retailer Dell, which launched regeneration.org to allow the company and its customers to share information, including personal artwork and messages, related to environmental issues. Dell uses the site to promote its own eco-friendly activities and links visitors back to Dell.com. In addition, specialty apparel retailer Victoria’s Secret, which could be considered a fashion retailer, has been running its PINK page [reg. req’d.] on Facebook, which lets users download a widget to their page to share information and link to online shopping pages, for more than a year.