Social shopping, now there’s a thing! Sounds great: “shop with friends”. The benefits are immediately apparent. Social commerce is the use of a social network that drives social interactions to assist buyers & sellers with Online commerce transactions.
“Pickle” (pickwithpickle.com) is a social shopping startup founded by Brian McMahon & Julia O’Mara, & is based in New York, USA.
The idea behind the startup is to create an environment for like-minded people to share information about products they are interested in. In this way, products are rated by trustworthy sources & buyers can be more confident in their purchases. Pickle is positioned as a social commerce platform that “combines the efficiency of Online shopping with the social benefits of shopping in real life.”
How Does It Work
Users are offered the facility of saving products from various e-commerce sites to a “Universal Shopping Cart” on the app. This “list” is great for organizing potential & past purchases. This “list” can be shared with friends.
Pickle gives users the tools to collaborate with each other to recommend products & offer advice & feedback on past purchases. Product polls also give users a valuable guide on potential purchases & users can join various “communities” of like-minded individuals, so that recommendations are based on their preferences.
Pickle takes the “risk” out of buying Online. Shopping “buddies” can be relied on to provide accurate, advertising free, feedback. Community driven product polls can be used to assess the quality of various products & if a suitable taste-based community does not exist on app, users can initiate their own group & encourage others to join.
While browsing the Internet, users can save products they discover to their “Pickle Jar”, a place where you can save & organize various product links. Think of it as a universal shopping cart. The product link is easy to save, & users simply need to click to add it to their list. When asking questions, engaging with or voting on polls users can choose to remain anonymous or interact under their username.
In addition to a Website, Pickle is also currently available on the Apple App Store, but an app for Android is in the works in the near future.
Image credit: Pickle
