We believe transparency and trust is at the heart of ensuring social commerce is of long-term value to both the customer and the retailer. Customer reviews are well known to increase on site conversion rates. However, trust is hard to gain and maintain on the web. We support our European retail partners (many of whom are household names) by supplying impartial customer reviews from people who have actually bought the product.

Richard Anson co-founder and CEO of Reevoo

I’ve written about the impact of social shopping on Varien’s blog a few times, and overall, despite a recent study by Jupiter Research that alleged social shopping “lacks impact” on customers, I think that social shopping does impart a sense of trust, comradre and community on shopping sites. How long that can last after retailers begin to take unfair advantage of that trust is debatable. That’s why Facebook is so great… it fosters the kind of trust that lets you put ALL of your highly personal information online without the persistent worry that someone’s going to take advantage of it. I became a member back in October of ‘04 when it came to my college, and we trusted it literally INSTANTLY. I don’t think that trust has diminished at all, which is why I think Facebook will continue to be an asset to social shopping.

I haven’t been off Jellyfish for 2 weeks now. It is the best idea for shopping i could imagine!

Thanks for the idea and the addiction!

suncandle!

we need more items, user item also would be great, who needs ebay!also i won today, making it more fantastic!

Jellyfish.com is the shopping site on the net. Most of us are there because of the games and prize give-aways (and yes, they do pay out cash, I personally have recieved a check from them). However, I also have made a few purchases through their shopping side and they typically heap a good % of savings off the lowest price on the internet. I HIGHLY recommend checking this place out for both fun and for shopping deals.

And dont forget to show the Smack Daddy some love.

Jellyfish.com is the most innovative website on the internet. They are more than just a shopping referal site, they actually share their cashback rewards with the buyers! So not only can you easily find the products you are looking for you will receive cashback on top of any other %/$ off coupons/codes you find and use.
Jellyfish also has 24/7 “Smack Shopping” which is a reverse auction. A wide variety of products are offered through out the day and night, you buy when the percent off gets to your price range. There is also an on-going chat to help liven things up. You can make friends, have a lot of fun, and save money!
The contests with prizes and cash awards are just the icing on this cake. The main reasons I am on Jellyfish.com almost 24/7 are the great deals and the great community atmosphere.
Keep up the good work Jellyfish!

w8plate’s comment sounds a little like an advertisement. Please keep comments to specific info about social shopping. If you’re here to rave about Jellyfish, that’s nice, but please assume that most of the readers of this blog know about the company. Talk specifically about Smack Shopping - why you participate, how often you participate, if you’re there to buy or just take part in the ‘game’, etc. Thanks. -b

I am there to buy. The contests are an added bonus. The only time I’m not logged in to jellyfish.com is at work and when sleeping.

This site is a great site. I have bought many items off the jellyfish site and the smack shopping community shows. It really encompasses what a “shopping community” is all about. They focus on the community aspect and a great deal of time and programming has gone into this success. If this site continues to catch on I wouldn’t be surprised to see more pop just like it. The ability to buy things at your own personal deemed value rather than msrp is a key to the model and makes the community thrive.

While attempting to buy items as percent goes down you talk about the deal and other personal issues. It’s shopping with entertainment. This site truly has everything going for it and makes a “game” out of shopping. Impulse buying is a big thing and they definitely succeed on impulse buyers.

I find myself and family now checking jellyfish to purchase items before we check anywhere else online. We have saved a big amount of money on everyday products as well as some useless ones as well like a beer drinking helmet.

All in all the chat is great and the use of Smack Daddy as a moderator is a great marketing ploy as well. It really is my favorite site on the web. I just hope I can keep my job and continue to use jellyfish!

I use smack shopping daily almost hourly. I participate mainly for the community but I also love the great deals. I like the outwit games because it keeps me sticking around and interested in what’s coming up next. Overall, I am on Jellyfish almost 24/7 or at least checking in with the community at every show.

I have been a member of Jellyfish for six months now and have been around for many of the changes/advancements made to the site. It is a genius idea to have a site that can serve as a social site and a place to get great deals on new, popular products at the same time. The “smack” (group of shoppers) can provide feedback on items and make recommendations on technology, quality, etc. or just be there to chat with and hang out. What could be better than going shopping for great deals with some friends to hang out with? The ‘reverse auction’ concept works in this ’social’ setting just as it should for the most part. The push/pull of the need to purchase before someone else does vs. getting the best deal possible keeps the action rolling along with ‘Live interactive games” that reward shoppers. Jellyfish.com, with continued great deals, great concepts and customer service, is sure to continue to grow by leaps and bounds as it has in its first year. Everything that social shopping should be and more….Not only highly recommended, but even more highly addictive!!

I’ve been a member of Jellyfish for almost two months. During that time I’ve made 5 purchases through the Smack Shopping portion of the site. All the items (electronics and video games) were purchased at an average discount of over 50%.

I’ve had two occasions to deal with Jellyfish customer service:

1. A glitch on an Xbox video game reverse auction prevented the item from “selling out” and allowed dozens of orders at a 100% discount. I fully expected the orders to be canceled, but Jellyfish honored them at great expense.

2. One auction order was canceled by the vendor because it was no longer available. Jellyfish customer service allowed me to substitute a different item at the same 74% discount. I ended up with an even better value that what I originally ordered.

Jellyfish could use some improvement. Occasional bugs cause the chat to lock up, prevent buyers from placing orders, and other problems. The product search engine frequently fails to return good results. The problems are no more than a nuisance, though, and are fixed rapidly. Jellyfish shows a great commitment to listening to user feedback and making things better.

While I originally came for the great deals, it’s the games and the chat that keep me coming back. The games add a gameshow feel, and leaderboards and prizes add a competitive element. Several hundred dollars in prizes are given away daily. I will win at least $100 this month, and have had chances to win even more.

The chat is fun and the people friendly, but it also serves a practical purpose. Instant feedback is always available for whether a product or vendor is worthy, or to answer other questions about the site. The “Daily Smack” show adds a live Jellyfish host (Smack Daddy), which further increases the ties between Jellyfish and its consumers.

If the posts from Jellyfish customers sound like advertisements, it’s because we really can’t help it. The site is addictive and a lot of fun. I’ll frequently find myself sitting through a women’s shoes show just because I’m enjoying the company and competition.

Jellyfish is definitely a company to watch.

All I can say is Thank you Brian and Mark for making this site possible!!! I Love everything there is to do on Jellyfish.com!!! The food, the fun, the games, the chat, and of course the great deals it all works so well together!!! Ok well maybe not the food, but you get the idea!!! If you don’t see me logged on to jellyfish, then you must have the wrong site!!! I am there 24/7, I have gotten some awesome deals on things that I normally would have bought at any store!!! I really enjoy all my new friends I have made on the smack! If you haven’t already signed up for smack please follow the link below and get yourself signed up, trust me you will not be sorry!!!

http://www.jellyfish.com/?jfp=…4IuLUEUXx2Y0NbZnNWxMuRew0yosl4pE0P3sX7T…4I=

Hope to see ya soon!!! ;-D

I learned about Facebook through the media hype surrounding it and joined a couple of years ago, and at the start, it was a revolutionary leader in social networking, it had it’s place. You can connect with friends, share your stories, photos and more, and make new friendships just as easy as pie. But I used it for a couple of months and it’s lost it’s thrill.

It was hard for me to return to it because the content was static, the improvements to the interface were minimal, and each profile I looked at started to blend into the next, as if everyone expressed themselves the same way? The locality of reference was one of the things I did not enjoy, at the time, because I could only view profiles of users within the same geological area as my own.

JellyFish.com has been a different experience. I learned about it from word-of-mouth, and the interface is MUCH more interactive. By leveraging cutting edge Web 2.0 technologies, they have built an immersive environment that is easy to use, and allows the user to build and share their personalized profile.

I believe that the promise of monetary prizes is a hook that got me in to try it, but there is no pressure to buy anything at all. I also found the social networking that I found, once inside is what keeps me coming back. I converse with people from all over now, as well as local participants.

The game play is in a familiar game show format, and plays quickly. There is some strategy to it, but most of all it is luck that helps you win.

I can see how the analogy of a Smack of JellyFish applies to the concept of this site. When you get enough jelly fish to form a ’smack’, it becomes an enormous moving object with enough momentum to produce a wave buying power. As more and more advertisers see the availability of this type of demand, I think JellyFish.com is going to start seeing bigger and bigger deals coming their way.

The advertising model is much more appetizing to the consumer as well. Instead of blatant banner ads, and annoying pop-ups, they promote their products through game play, which has kept American television viewers glued to their sets since the 50’s. Now that ‘commercialism’ has been applied in an ever-familiar way on the internet, live, and interactively.

I have only been a JellyFish member since mid-May, and I have not made any purchases yet, nor am I bound to buy only from their stores. But I guarantee that the next time I’m searching for a good deal on the Internet, it will be the first place I check for a price.

It’s not an issue at this time that the prices I might find are less on JellyFish.com, but it’s the familiarity of their interface (which I use everyday), and the convenience of their site.

Hey Brian, I’ll try to plug my site, Buzzillions.com, in a transparent non-salesy way since it relates directly to your call for comments on social shopping. As I’ve been reading this blog, I’ve wondered where we fit into the comparison engine space especially now with your previous post on pricing perhaps becoming less important. So we let people find a product by selecting consumer review keywords in areas such as Pros, Cons, User Profile and Best Uses. These are keywords that they tagged products with during the review process (we collect reviews on behalf of retailers under the name PowerReviews). Our Buzzillions.com users convert higher when clicking on tags than when only clicking on Brand or Price so we’re super excited about our version of social shopping. As we roll up the numbers of people who use certain tags, we get to take advantage of the collective opinions of hundreds of users. For example, you can find refrigerators by clicking on tags that the “crowd” created and agreed on such as the “quiet” tag. After all, how many people own 3 fridges, 6 dishwashers and 20 digital cameras? Maybe Emeril

I haven’t used any of the other “social shopping” sites. I stumbled on Jellyfish because I heard about this interesting new venture started in my hometown of Madison, Wisconsin. I decided to check it out, and I’ve never looked back!

I go to Jellyfish because it’s fun. I’ve “met” a lot of interesting and friendly people on this site, and it’s fun to chat with them at various times during the day. And I’m a shopper, so I buy there, too! Smack shopping is the best. I can’t turn down a great deal on something I want or need, and every so often something comes up, and I get an excellent deal on it. Since i joined in January 2007, I’ve made 7 Smack purchases and 5 “regular” Jellyfish purchases — and I feel I’ve gotten a great deal on each of them.

I do detailed research before I buy a product anywhere (online or physical store), for the best brand, the best price. If Jellyfish can’t offer that, I don’t feel it necessary to buy through JF. But if JF can give me that often enough, and a great social network, I’ll keep going there.

The games and points are just an added part of the fun; they are not why I continue to go Smack Shopping. I enjoy the interface with my “shopping buddies” and get great recommendations (and warnings) for products, merchants, and prices.

Oh, and Smack Daddy, host of the daily Smack show (12:00 CT), is the best!

I should add one comment: The wish lists are another great aspect about Jellyfish. Each member has their own page, and their own wish list to add items they’d like to buy. The JF staff apparently peruses them to offer deals. I’ve had at least two items from my wish list come up recently (I bought one of them before it came up, and the other from Smack at a great price!). They also have weekly “wish list shows” which feature items from various members’ wish lists.

I don’t know how other sites work, but knowing you can request items be offered is a big plus for me.

Hi Brian,
I am a developer of Tokenizer.org which is crawler-based (like ShopWiki.com); hundreds of others are publishing RSS feeds. I noticed at Alexa that average page-view-per-user is around 3-4 pages, even for PriceGrabber. Some sites offer ‘caviar’, ‘bra’, ‘gold’ and etc.; I believe many things should be bought ‘alive’ directly in store. Some items like as CISCO Router have pictures; Tokenizer does not have picture of PIX License, why for?!
So…
Tokenizer has about 50 unique users a day, and it needs a lot of work such as adding Category, Manufacturer, tuning prices…
Thanks

Hey Brian

I feel the need to interject my $.02 into the conversation here as somebody who once worked for one of the major comparison shopping engines was tasked with understanding and making business strategy recommendations for the company given the ever changing landscape. In the incumbent comparison shopping defense, almost all are now owned entirely by public entities that are beholden to the markets and subject to the same “short sightedness” that the market cares most about, quarterly numbers. Of course, this doesn’t give the incumbent engines and excuse to sit on their laurels and not make any changes to adapt to the new Internet landscape.

Since leaving my previous employer, I have grown to appreciate, even more so, the new social networking tools now widely available for the purposes of consumer marketing /consumer acquisition. These are powerful new tools, still in their infancy that could prove more effective overtime than even search engines given the trust component of ones inner network. I believe that their is in fact a place for all of these tools within the marketing groups of of EVERY ecommerce company, however, to adopt these new marketing methods and integrate them into larger organizations like shopping.com, pricegrabber and shopzilla will take a much longer period of time, given some of their constraints as mentioned previously. They will all learn, soon enough, after experiencing serious pains trying to extend their businesses through search that consumer acquisitions can be completed at much lower costs through these new marketing channels.

All of that being said, personally speaking, I do not feel that the “social” comparison shopping players have developed truly compelling applications to date that might alter consumer purchasing behavior online. Taking the social concept and extending this to the shopping category does not guarantee success. Sure, the VC’s love to hear the cooker cutter approach to a business plan, but that just doesn’t mean that the user adoption will ever be there. I would like to see the numbers from somebody at one of the social shopping sites about the breakouts out of true organic traffic (not inclusive of SEO). I bet you that less then 10% of existing traffic is from repeat users. The point is, today, “social” shopping sites are no better than the incumbent comparison shopping players in my mind. In the social shopping case, gaming the search markets, paid and free, with user generated content, without a compelling consumer proposition. At least the incumbent’s have well organized pricing information that will stand the test of time in terms of value to the consumer. What do the “social” sites really provide at the end of the day??

I believe there is a much better way to integrate shopping into the social networking wave that we are currently riding. And much of this is about working together with these sites, such as Facebook, among others, to leverage their “trust” factor and integrating the shopping element into a similar behavior that actually takes place off line today. I have some thoughts around this that I may just have to transform into my next new gig purely out of frustration for what currently exists!! Anyone interested in taking a crack at it with me?? Email me at directory at labruinbear.com

Just some end of Friday ramblings for your readership Brian.

LaBruinBear

Did you see this stat? According to HitWise, the top 20 social networking web site grew as a source of traffic for shopping and classifieds web sites, accounting for 3.6% of upstream visits in May 2007 – an increase of 86.7% since May 2006. So are we going to see more and more comparison shopping sites and online merchants use social networking as a marketing tool?

[...] osted by Brian Smith at September 9th, 2007 Two months ago I wrote a post looking for comments on social shopping. [...]

[...] months ago I wrote a post looking for comments on social shopping. I mentioned Jellyfish. And the Smack attacked (check out the comments for the post). A Smack, for [...]

Hi Brian,

I would like to share http://www.plaza101.com, one of distinctive social shopping site. This provides some best services like price comparison, product reviews and social activities. User can tag products, create wish lists, profiles and share it with their friends.

If you can write something in details for this site, thats highly recommended.

Mike