Social shopping

There’s no end to innovation in the shoposphere: Stylehive describes itself as a social bookmarking for the product and shopping obsessed. As social bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us and Technorati already allow users to share links to webpages, and organise them using keywords or tags, Stylehive’s commercial spin is to focus solely on shopping and products, letting users bookmark their favourite products, add pictures, and share them with like-minded shoppers, family, and friends. CEO Michael Carrier’s founded Stylehive to create a place where fashion-forward and trend setting consumers can “discover and connect with each other, to literally capture the excitement and energy in finding new things”. If it works as planned, the savvy shoppers’ collective brain will spot and share trends as they’re breaking, making it easier for other consumers to keep up with the latest hot new products. This will be enhanced by a soon to be added groups feature. Just like photo sharers on Flickr, Stylehivers will be able to create and join groups for their favourite product, whether it’s evening bags, Scandinavian furniture, designer sunglasses, or hand-woven rugs. Besides being able to show off their trend spotting talent, consumers can use Stylehive to create personal wishlists, which can also be categorised (‘Jen’s Birthday’ or ‘New Apt’) and shared with family and friends. Opportunities? Stylehive is the online, open source version of the highly successful shopping magazines that started popping up a few years ago. And just like Lucky was the first of hundreds of magalogues across the world, we anticipate collaborative shopping communities for many regions and countries (going hand in hand with regional availability of products), as well as niche communities for young parents, teenage girls or thirtysomething men. On a branding level, Stylehive and its future siblings present a multitude of new buzz-creating opportunities for consumer brands and retailers. Take a look at what Buy.com did with Yub.com for even more inspiration. If you’re in retail, in publishing, in community building: move quickly!