Cubalaya Blog UK

Social Shopping Experiences

Online shoppping is quickly becoming more social-oriented, as ebay's and Facebook's recent upgrades show.  While the former is first and foremost an e-commerce giant, and the latter is the leading social networking online service, they have each taken steps that bring them closer together. 

ebay has launched "ebay neighborhoods", which are micro-social networks focused on a single product or category.  Inside these neighborhoods one can find blogs, guides, reviews, product searches and users- all content found across ebay.  Members can join these neighborhoods and add to discussions, post photos, invite friends, write reviews and meet other like-minded people.  It is also possible for users to start new neighborhoods for specific products, sports teams, hobbies or any other idea.

Facebook has thousands of applications for members to use as add-ons, but the most interesting addition is "My Shopping".  This application, powered by SecretPrices.com, allows users to shop within their own Facebook user, where they can search for products, rate items they want or already own and get advice or make a recommendation on a product.  A recent survey shows that many teenagers communicate with their friends while shopping- either by shopping together physically, talking on cell phones, texting or IMing.  Facebook is looking to enhance the social aspect of online shopping through its social environment.

It will be interesting to see if these two leading Internet services end up competing with each other as social shopping networks, and how this will affect the rest of the online shopping world.

Online Payment Methods

With Amazon starting its own full-blown online payment system, PayPal and its owner eBay have found a worthy competitor.  Although some people only look to Amazon as a place to get that out-of-print long-lost paperback, it has become a shopping giant for new and used items, the latter traditionally considered eBay's forte.  An online payment system makes life much easier for private merchants, allowing them to receive their payment without going through the fuss of working with the credit card companies.

But not just the merchants benefit from this kind of system- giving personal information online, especially a credit card number or an electronic check, has always been a bit risky.  Online security has improved substantially over the years, but the fear of electronic fraud has been one of the major factors in PayPal's success.  They act as the middleman between the customer and the merchant, and keep the fomer's financial data to themselves, offering a stronger sense of security, not to mention making purchases a quicker process.  In fact, eBay determined this idea so useful to its business model that it purchased PayPal in 2002. 

And then came Google Checkout.  Waiving all transaction fees through the end of 2007, Google is looking to expand its circle of merchants during the holiday season.  While still lacking many of PayPal's features, the Google has a wide range of online stores which accept Google Checkout, allows payments through a mobile phone (soon to be extended further with the GPhone?), and, unlike PayPal, has great customer service.  And looking at the recent upgrades to the Checkout service- it seems Google takes customer feedback to heart.