November 24, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

The up and coming social shopping site Svpply, is on its way to e-commerce success. The company has recently raised $550,000 in seed investment led by Spark Capital and Founder Collective with participation from angel investors Ron Conway, Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley and former Myspace co-President Jason Hirschhorn.

Svpply is unlike any other online social marketplace: Instead of producing its own catalog, it relies on its user to set the trends by using a bookmarklet to tag items they find neat and interesting. The users’ followers can see the bookmarked items, which are then curated through the site’s pages for editor’s picks, gift guides, and popular products. There are plenty of sites out there that offer interesting and unique items for sale, but Svpply creates its own niche by adding a social aspect to online shopping.

Svpply is a place where anyone can put stuff on the site that they think is hip, and showcase to all their followers. The great thing about this option is the company hands-off approach.  The user and its followers decide product worthiness, which makes for an eclectic array of products that suit just about any taste.

The main idea behind Svpply is that it’s site and products are supposed to be “cool.” The company wants people to enjoy the experience of online shopping. ”Our background is more engrossed in the aesthetic. One of our goals is to have a shopping site guys won’t be afraid of. On the front page, you don’t even know you are being sold to,” says Ben Pieratt, Svpply’s CEO.

Svpply was founded by Zach Klein, who helped start College Humor and later Vimeo, and current chief product officer at Boxee, Ben Pieratt, Boston based designer, and Eric Jacobsen, Svpply’s developer.

Additionally, Svpply is developing apps for the iPhone and android.

November 23, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

It’s the middle of the night and you’re fast asleep. You roll over in bed to snuggle a little closer to the warmth of your loved one only to find a cold empty imprint, and the sudden awareness that something is not quite right. One foot out and the second hesitantly searches for the floor, a strange glow in the distance draws you in. You reach for the door, your hand trembling as you do. The glow grows bigger and then without warning blinds you entirely.  Heart racing, your confusion deepens; goosebumps run through your body. As the images in front of you slowly come into focus, you see your spouse huddled in front of a computer, madly clicking the mouse.  You move closer, and like a moment out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie, you are confronted with the unspeakable horror of… online shopping!

Online shopping?

Okay, so it’s 3am, you’re tired as hell and maybe overreacted, but really, it’s just online shopping. Hey, at least your spouse is not huddled in front a computer looking at porn.

Shopping online in the cover of darkness does not have to be a shameful thing. Self proclaimed shopaholic, True Blood star Anna Paquin, confesses to her own habits as husband and co-star Stephen Moyer has even caught her in the middle of the night shopping away. Paquin defends herself as a fashionista, explaining “I don’t always buy, I’m almost more of a window shopper!” Truth be told, Paquin is not alone, so be ashamed no more fashionistas and shopaholics! Come out of hiding with Google’s newest ecommerce store Boutiques.com.

Boutiques.com is a fashionista’s virtual playground. The site uses a vision technology that categorizes over 50,000 fashion items down to specific style, color, shape, and pattern. Google has essentially created a personal stylist algorithm that changes how fashion is presented online. Visitors can build their own profile or boutique where they can share personal styles and eventually accumulate followers who can comment on their taste. By taking a style quiz, the site suggests personally tailored preferences from trends (consider it the way Pandora suggests music based on users’ likes) users can also select which trends they like and rate them.

The real fun comes from Boutiques’ major designers and celebrities who have signed on to share their own personal fashion. Visitors can now browse through the preferences of designers such as Diane von Furstenburg, Oscar de la Renta, and Derek Lam and celebrities like Nicole Richie, Eve, Elisabeth Moss, and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen (it’s like getting to peak inside their closets). Google authenticates all celebrity boutiques to ensure the real deal.

Potentially, the site will expand to offer men’s fashions as well as featuring boutiques from fashion magazines and even characters from TV shows (maybe a cameo from a Miss Sookie Stackhouse is in order). The site celebrates fashion savvy opinions. With all of the fashion bloggers and high end retailers involved, Boutiques is a place to both show off and discover the fashionista inside all of us.

November 22, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

There’s really nothing that says “I’ve put a lot of thought into this” like getting a gift card for the holidays. That sentiment increases when the gift card is for some place you’ve never heard of, or worse would not be caught dead in.  Fortunately there is a company that recognizes this frustration and gives card recipients the opportunity to capitalize on their misfortune.

Plastic Jungle, the provider of an online marketplace for trading and selling gift cards, recently announced that it has raised $10 million in its third round of funding led by Jafco Ventures.

The company allows users to sell their unwanted gift cards for up to 92 percent of the card’s value and get it back in cash. According to the website, the average payout for gift cards is around $96.

In order to qualify for a trade in, a card must have a minimum $25 balance.

The demand of a given card depends on the payout for said card. For example, Target gift cards will generally pay out 90 percent of it face value, whereas a Macy’s cards may go for 80 percent of its initial value.

Plastic Jungle says that it can save users an average of $68 if they purchased gift cards through its marketplace. By purchasing gift cards through the site, shoppers can save up to 30 percent on their next trip to the mall.

The marketplace even offers a variety of payout options. If cash seems a bit barbaric, Plastic Jungle can pay out in Facebook Credits or direct deposit to PayPal.

Other company investors include Shasta Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Jafco Ventures, First Round Capital, Bay Partners, Harrison Metal and Western Technology Investment. To date, Plastic Jungle has raised a total of $23.4 million, which includes a $6 million round led by Shasta Ventures and a $7.4 million round led by Redpoint Ventures.

November 22, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

The holiday season is just around the corner and Group buying startup Groupon is leaping into the spirit, not just by offering special deals, but by creating its own holiday, Grouponicus.

Described as a “brand-new, centuries-old wintertime holiday that lets you skip the stale gift cards and give your loved ones fun and exciting experiences in their city—at 50% off,” Grouponicus is another zany promotional tactic that prides itself on smart, tongue and cheek writing.

How does Grouponicus set itself apart from Groupon? For one, it’s a completely separate site and email news letter. The site points out special holiday deals that Groupon patrons can purchase for that special someone.

The Grouponicus site also differs in structure. Instead of offering one deal per day that lasts only 24 hours, Grouponicus offers three to four deals at a time that will be available for three to five days.

No holiday would be complete without some form of symbology. Christmas has Santa, Thanksgiving moderates the turkey population, Hanukkah has a dradle made out of clay, and Grouponicus has Groupo The Bargain Bird. He is “the dapper, snake-tailed Grouponicus holiday mascot that kids love! On each night of Grouponicus, Groupo uses his nimble snake-tail to unlock your attic windows so that he may leave neatly stacked Groupons inside the ovens of his true believers –those who live by his Doctrine of Completion.”

One may ask what the Doctrine of Completion is.  Well it’s the belief system by which all Grouponicus followers adhere to and swear to uphold.  The Doctrine is said to be found  ”in the heart of every singing child, the faces of every elderly couple baking snow pies, and in the concrete-filled vault 26 miles beneath the Library of Congress, where the original copy is still faintly glowing.”

Grouponicus will offer a total of 650 deals throughout the holiday season, which begins during the Autumn Solstice on Nov. 22 and wraps up during on Dec. 26.

The people have spoken and Yipit is answering. On Wednesday, the group-deal site unveiled its newest feature: Yipit Nation.  The feature is responding to the countless nationwide deal sites by pulling a range of different categories into one location. Now, instead of signing up for sites like Groupon and LivingSocial for local deals, Lot18 for discounted wine, and Gilt Groupe for clothing, people will be able to log onto Yipit and browse through a user customized selection of deals in one sitting.

Subscribers simply sign up and customize their profile through a selection of categories that best describe their interests. Categories include men’s and women’s fashion, electronics, home décor, wine, coffee and teas, items for kids and babies, holiday items, travel, pets, and more.

Yipit Nation launched soon after Yahoo released their plans of jumping on the local deal band wagon by launching Yahoo Local Deals. It’s not entirely clear how Yahoo will structure their deal site, but some think it may be CTRL + C (ing) and CTRL + V(ing) some of the aspects of  Yipit, who say anything Yahoo can do, they can do better. “I was surprised they are only working with 16 partners,” Yipit co-founder Vinicius Vacanti told CNET when asked for his take on Yahoo Local Deals. “Yipit currently aggregates over 130 daily deal services creating a much more comprehensive experience. If users rely on Yahoo for their daily deals, they will be missing out on 80 percent of the deals.”

Yahoo is not the only force that Yipit needs to be wary of. There are at least 30 daily deal services focussed on national or brand deals, including tanks like Amazon’s Woot!, UrbanDaddy, Lot18, and Cinderella Wine. In August, Groupon attempted its first ever nationwide deal, offering $25 off of any $50 purchase at the Gap. The deal was so hot that Groupon’s servers crashed due to excessive activity. There were around 400,000 coupons sold, which turned out $11 million in one day.

Earlier this year Yipit raised a $1.3 million A round from SV Angel, RRE Ventures, IA Ventures, Michael Yavonditte, and Peter Hershberg.

November 18, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

Quick store idea: ‘how about we gather as much offensive and absurd stuff as we can and let’s make money off of it! Yaay!’ Okay, this may or may not have been the mentality behind Ryan McCormick and Colin Hart, creators of oddity webstore TheCheeky.com, but it’s still a cool possibility. The Vancouver, Canada online retailer prides itself in selling items that “mock convention and challenge pointlessness.”

November 18, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

Social commerce deal-finding program dealspl.us, eager to strengthen its position in the burgeoning online group-coupon market, launched a new program to allow participants in its unique brand of social deal-finding to make some much-needed holiday cash for their efforts. Like many new social commerce outfits starting out and gaining prominence right now, dealspl.us functions by giving users a space where they can share and recommend new deals and online coupons. The participants themselves don’t do anything to facilitate the deals – they just find and report them.

Unlike group-coupon deal services like Groupon, LivingSocial, and EthicalDeal, the deals and coupons reported on dealspl.us aren’t based on collective bargaining or meeting some minimum threshold in order for the deal to go into effect. The deals are already out there and dealspl.us just allows users a convenient place to collect them all together.

Like other social commerce sites (ShopSocially, JoeShopping, Lockerz), dealspl.us users can advocate for their favorite deals, passing the savings on through their network (like a Groupon-style deal) or to total strangers via the frontpage of the site.
The game-change that the new “money maker” program brings to the table is the ability for deal-advocates to earn some income for themselves based on their participation. Users earn different amounts for different actions, $3 per 1000 clicks of a deal or coupon that they post, $1.50 for 1000 clicks of a deal update, and other amounts for things like answering questions on the site or for posting a special link or using dealspl.us’ widget – a special download that can be incorporated into a user’s personal website or blog to help monetize it in line with this program.

This isn’t just some flash in the pan kind of promotion says dealspl.us CEO Jason Lee:

“At dealspl.us, we’re devoted to helping consumers easily find and share the best deals…We wanted to…provide users…opportunities to earn money for their time and participation…”

The holiday timing will allow deal-advocates to earn money to offset their bills (along with access to numerous deals, to hopefully reduce those bills), but Lee is committed to building on the holiday theme of giving:

“We are matching donations made through Money Makers to the esteemed U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program.”

November 17, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

In the Chinese Zodiac, 2011 will be the year of the rabbit, but according to many experts 2011 is going to be the year of social commerce.

According to industry analyst Ovum, more and more retailers will be turning to e-commerce. They believe retailers will be hoping to harness social commerce across multiple platforms, including smartphones and even TVs for a more profitable year.

Retailers and advertisers have begun to recognize the possibilities and power of social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Interacting on an international level with an audience of  hundreds of millions of people  seemed a far too intimidating medium to get behind at first. Now Ovum estimates that this fear will change as 2011 rolls around and firms move to embrace the march of progress.

Says Christine Bardwell, Ovum analyst:

“Contrary to the current waves of cynicism in the UK retail sector, 2011 will be the year when social commerce will really take off.”

Bardwell explains that leading businesses in the UK are cautious to adopt e-commerce due to a concern of safe online shopping and the small number of actual online retail success stories.  ”However,” she said, “it offers good sales potential in 2011 and will be the big story in retail technology. It definitely should not be disregarded as a fad.” Still, there is something to be said for ecommerce “across the pond.”

Over the next fiscal year social commerce is expected to grow exponentially and leave behind its “faddish” stigma as well.

“Retailers will start to take a serious stance on social shopping in 2011 and we will see more and more products and services available for us to buy when we log on to catch up with our friends,” says Bardwell.

M-commerce and television shopping will also be expecting a significant increase in traffic. Bardwell explains that television shopping shows signs of opening up for retailers. ” We will start to see the option to click through consumers’ favourite soap operas or music videos to make a purchase.”

With multichannel shopping known to increase retail sales as much as a third, it’s important for retailers to keep up with the new trends of social commerce.

“Integrating all these channels is the key to driving repeat business, which is crucial as the days of high growth on the high street are over and the signs are that the online market is starting to mature and should not be relied on for long-term growth,” said Bardwell.

November 17, 2010

By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

A few days ago Facebook announced plans for starting up their own e-mail service, code-named “Titan.”  Like Google‘s Gmail debut, this new service already has people bidding for invites on eBay.

Dubbed the “Gmail killer,” @facebook.com will be offering features that many other e-mail services, including Gmail, do not offer. Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook, said @facebook.com will offer 3 unique features: seamless messaging across a variety of platforms, including SMS and texting; conversation history across those platforms; and a “social in-box,” allowing the user to filter the in-box just to show messages from friends.

“People should share however they want,” said product manager Andrew Bozworth.

The service will support attachments for many different types of message service across various platforms (cell phones, computers, etc) through software that will funnel all those bits of data into one Facebook in-box. It’s the biggest engineering team Facebook has ever assembled, Bozworth noted.

In order for Facebook to survive they need to bring in the next generation of internet users.  The social network’s goal is to turn traditional e-mail services into a seemingly obsolete resource. To maintain the number one seat of social networking, Facebook needs appeal to the younger more “connected” generation. Zuckerberg knows the importance of  this. By locking them in at a young age, Facebook will make it through another generation.

Soon people will no longer have to waste time logging out of Facebook to check their e-mail.  The 500 million member social network is fighting to make this new e-mail service the one stop shop for a person’s digital and social needs.

Allfacebook.com will be auctioning off one Facebook e-mail invite.  100% of the proceeds will be donated to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure organization which is working on developing a cure for breast cancer.

November 16, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

Everybody is Kung-Fu fighting now with the launch of urban clothing line Drunknmunky’s first webstore. Based out of the UK, Drunknmunky gets its name from an ancient Kung-Fu fighting style practiced by Shaolin monks. Mastering the Drunknmunky technique shows control and strength of the mind and body. By marrying this ideology with the underground music scene, the Drunknmunky lifestyle and culture have emerged into a line of urban streetwear products for men and women 16-25 years old. From hoodies, hats, tees, and sneakers, ranging from anywhere between £20-£60 Drunknmunky wear can make anyone walk just a little taller. Think East meets West but on the urban streets of London, the brand simply oozes a fresh sense of cool.

Originally limited to only retail distribution, Drunknmunky has now evolved into an online brand.

“We recognize that our customer base is choosing to shop more online. This launch sees us increasing our online business, digital presence and international reach, a key objective for us this year” says Dave Shanks, managing director at Drunknmunky.

The ecommerce site, designed and powered by creative digitial marketing agency Strange, has properly captured the Drunknmunky culture in the store’s digital interface. Strange takes the style and ideologies of the brand and fully mimics integrates it into the store’s navigation and design. Other features include a news feed, competitions, and a social sharing function to continue brand growth. Drunknmunky can accredit much of the webstore’s early success to Strange’s prelaunch campaign. The campaign heavily involved building a solid customer database and brand awareness. By the time the site went live, they already had a strong online presence. Now with a live ecommerce store, Strange’s focus will include a paid search campaign to drive site visitors as well as a social media strategy to maximize sales just in time for this year’s holiday shopping.

November 16, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

It’s going in the vault, it’s coming out of the vault, no wait, it’s going back into the vault again, no wait… For years now, The Disney Vault has been playing with the hearts and minds of Disney movie lovers – and for good reason. This tactic has been part of their marketing strategy as it creates a demand for Disney movies that have already been released. Disney will release a DVD for a limited time, spiking its popularity briefly, then remove it from retail shelves to be “locked” in the vault for 7-10 years completely unavailable for purchase. Essentially, by limiting access to a Disney classic, older fans will frantically move to purchase a movie before it goes into lock down (preserving their childhood Disney experiences for the future) and at the same time generating newer fans from the buzz that limited access creates. That’s pretty ingenious on Disney’s behalf. However, this tactic alone has not proven to be enough to keep DVD sales strong, as the company has seen its largest decline in DVD sales within the last several years.

Has Disney lost its ‘muchness?’

The downturn in sales cannot all be attributed to the slow economy but rather a shift in the way the public accesses media. Industry trend watchers predict digital movie sales will jump, mirroring the way that consumers shifted their purchases from physical CD’s to digital copies commonly purchased on iTunes, Amazon, and other online marketplaces that allow playback on multiple media devices (iPod, iPad, etc.) and thus, replacing the need for a physical disc. In response, Disney launched Disney Movies Online earlier in May as a way to test the digital waters. Word of the website remains quiet but Disney expects promotion to kick into full swing in the first half of 2011. The site is Disney’s attempt at transitioning into digital movie sales. It allows consumers buy or rent digital versions of Disney films and watch them online. In addition, Disney has partnered with Wal-Mart ‘s Vudu to offer a free digital copy of Toy Story 3 with the purchase of the DVD. Each DVD contains a code that unlocks the movie and allows users to stream it off of any Vudu supported device. The jump to digital sales does not guarantee a quick fix to the decline in DVD sales, the uncertainty is still there, and whether Disney can be ‘much muchier’ again has yet to be determined.

November 16, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

eBay wants to make your kids cry… tears of joy that is. The holidays are not dead thanks to eBay’s social media campaign Love to Give which aims to bring emotion back into the act of giving. The website began a campy six-week web series entitled ‘Unwrap Attack,’ the first of which was launched on Oct. 29, featuring The Daily Show’s comedian correspondent Samantha Bee as the star gift enthusiast. The webisode shows Bee watching humorous clips of children freaking out as they open their Christmas presents while she is readying her own gifts for the same reaction.

The theme of each series encourages eBay users to find the perfect gift for their child or loved one in order to invoke the Christmas Freakout. The Christmas Freakout was originally popularized by a YouTube video of two kids, Rachel and Brandon Kuzma, unwrapping their Nintendo 64 on Christmas in 1998. The video became a huge Internet sensation. The clip shows the two kids screaming hysterically, celebrating wildly, and even shedding a tear upon unwrapping the gaming system. If they were going wild over a Nintendo 64, imagine the reaction when kids and even adults are opening up the Kinect this year (ever see an adult scream or shed a tear for a new toy? It’s the best.).  BMW has bought the rights to the video for an undisclosed amount (somewhere near $50,000) and has featured it in its broadcasts. Now, eBay has followed with an estimated $15-$18 million budget for their Love to Give campaign which is divided between online ads, social media applications, and the ‘Unwrap Attack’ web series. eBay users can also submit their own videos of their gift recipients having a Christmas Freakout on lovetogive.ebay.com.

With such a large budget, eBay is putting a heavy effort to connect with their target audience (the 40 year old shopping enthusiast) with action to drive traffic back to the self-proclaimed “world’s largest marketplace for the holidays.” The campaign has already generated a positive response as it taps into the driving force of social shopping. Christopher Payne, vice president for the North American operations of eBay, based in San Jose, California, says social shoppers “like to hunt for an item, like to talk about it and like to share [...] social channels have become dominant.” Between applications on mobile devices and Facebook and a webisode on YouTube, eBay has fully covered their ground on social media. The company wants their customers to know eBay is the place to find the gift that will cause any person to shake, shriek, and celebrate uncontrollably. Ready those video cameras, this may be the one time of the year where its okay to laugh at crying children.

November 11, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

Hide your kids, hide your wife, and why not,  hide your husbands too. Kim, Khloe, and Kourtney Kardashian have teamed up with MasterCard to be the faces of a new prepaid credit card that targets the teen and parents’ of teens demographics. The Kardashian card is designed to help parents monitor their children’s spending, control their balances, and teach kids about money management.

“Teens do not spend their money as their parents think they do [...] and drugs are a huge problem in this country. I give my son a small amount of cash and track his spending on his card,” says a rep for Mobile Resource, who helped MasterCard launch the Kardashian card on November 10.

Signing up with the prepaid card automatically opens a free Mobile Money account connecting the card to any mobile device and allows users to conveniently transfer funds between accounts by cell phone. Users also have the option to receive mobile alerts on all purchases. Does this mean the Kardashian Sisters are now the faces of financial responsibility?

The girls are best known for their hit reality series Keeping Up With the Kardashians on the E! network and not for their financial savvy. Ironically, Kim Kardashian is so notorious for her extravagant spending that her own family had to stage an intervention to get her to curb her shopaholic ways. She admits that she spends the most out of all the Kardashians, with recent purchase including a $2,500 pair of Christian Louboutin shoes and a $30,000 Birkin bag. Given how vastly her idea of spending varies from the average American’s, this Kardashian may not be the financial role model that teens need.

Kim Kardashian’ s other endorsements are a bit of a dichotomy as well, ranging from weight loss products with Quick Slim, a workout DVD, and Reebok appearances,  to lending her face to Carl’s Jr., Famous Cupcakes, and Sugar Factory’s Couture Lollipops. Her variety of past endorsements may not all fit together perfectly, but her latest venture may prove to be a smart one.

Prepaid credit cards are projected to gain popularity over the next few years. They have perks that credit cards don’t, like the inability of acquiring debt and a lack of overdrafts, while keeping strengths like federal insurance and the ability to receive salary direct deposits. They are so useful that by 2014, nearly 12 million people are expected to have a prepaid credit card of some kind.

November 9, 2010
By the ZippyCart Shopping Cart Reviews Content Team

Whether it can be stomached or not, Mike Sorrentino who is better known as The Situation has made quite a name for himself. Known for his fist pumping, grenade dodging, and womanizing antics on MTV’s reality series, The Jersey Shore, The Situation has parlayed the series’ popularity into his own successful brand. It has already been estimated that he will bring in $5 million by the end of this year, from appearances, to his show salary, and a number of endorsements, that kind of money is not such a bad situation. Don’t worry, that sickening feeling in the gut will go away soon. Who knew fist pumping his 15 minutes of fame could lead into millions of dollars? With a book already out in stores, Here’s the Situation a ‘Guide to Creeping on Chicks, Avoiding Grenades, and Getting in Your GTL on the Jersey Shore,’ Sorrentino just seems he cannot be stopped. Not to mention on iTunes, the little gem that is his RAP single featuring Fatman Scoop entitled, what else but, The Situation. His other endorsements include Vitamin Water, Reebok, NOX Energy, a couple clothing lines, an upcoming vodka, and a $5 iPhone app that locates the nearest GTL (gym, tanning, and laundry) throughout the U.S.

The latest venture for him is an ab-focused workout DVD in which viewers can get their own gym on for 50 minutes with The Situation. In as little as 15 minutes a day viewers can also get their own ‘Situation.’ The DVD also includes a segment called Sitch’s Ab Secrets that teaches how The Situation maintains his abs as well as tips toward getting a hard body. The workout DVD is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com before it is fully unleashed onto store shelves November 23rd.

In sum, it looks like The Situation may have the whole world fooled as he is building an empire based on products and endorsements that will make any consumer look, act, date, drink and dance just like him. Cloning himself indefinitely, people will soon be living in a land, guidofied, where the ozone is saturated with hairspray, being hyper tan is the thing, and there is no end or escape from fist pumping.