Social Shopping

Social Shopping is something I have been getting into lately because mainly I can save money. I have never really seen the sites I have been using as social shopping until I recently had a conversation about one of the sites posting what shopper was viewing on their Facebook page.

So, what is social shopping you might ask? Social shopping is the combination of social media and e-commerce. It takes all the key aspects of social media: friends, groups, voting, comments, discussions and puts those aspects into a shopping environment.

The sites I use are Tobi, JustFab, Shoe Dazzle and Polyvore. Tobi, JustFab and Shoe Dazzle promote signing up with your Facebook account by allowing you to receive a significant discount. Each site allows you to interact with your friends by posting what you are viewing on the shopping site on Facebook. You are also able to pin a certain item to your personal Pinterest board to see what your friends say. Some of the sites even have a live chat feature.

Polyvore is a community powered social commerce website. Members can create image collages called "Sets". Active Polyvore communities exist in the areas of fashion, interior design and artistic expression. I use Polyvore to create outfits. There are thousands of clothing items on the site from all different stores. Once I finish creating an outfit, there are links available to purchase the clothing items from the stores. Many of the sets I have created I have bought.

Social shopping is not ideal to some because it may post on your social media sites on your behalf, which can be annoying. However, it can be changed in the settings. Also, some people online shop in order to avoid the social aspect of shopping in a mall or stores. In this case, social shopping is not meant for them. For me, I think it is great to seek others advice and utilize the different unique tools of social shopping.

I created this outfit on Polyvore last Christmas. I own most of the items from this set.