If you live in a major city and enjoy dining out, going to museums or pampering yourself with spa services, it's likely that you also receive "deal of the day" offers from Groupon or LivingSocial. And perhaps you've tapped into the "wisdom of crowds" shopping model and participated in a free auction on Listia or received advice from people in the online fashion community before purchasing something on Kaboodle. And if you read the tech blogs, you're probably aware of up-and-coming startups Blippy and Swipely. What do these internet companies have in common? They are all part of a new trend in eCommerce called social shopping. The main idea behind social shopping is that user interactions on eCommerce sites are more difficult to capture and share between customers than they are in brick-and-mortar establishments. Think about it. People often go shopping with friends, discuss items they intend to purchase and even physically examine products together. These outings are as much social events as they are purchasing events. But in the online world, the social aspect of shopping was missing—until now.
Recently, Facebook and Amazon validated that this trend is hot by announcing that users can now shop socially by connecting their Amazon and Facebook accounts:
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