So did hell just freeze over? Amazon, the grand dame of e-commerce has set up shop with the new kid on the e-commerce block, Facebook, in a curious ménage-à-trois with leading consumer brand manufacturer, Procter & Gamble (photographic evidence below). What’s actually being sold is P&G’s Max Factor brand, “the makeup of makeup artists”, on a [...]

Want to set up a fashion store selling top labels such as Diane Von Furstenberg, Gap, Barneys New York, Juicy Couture, Banana Republic, Tory Burch and TopShop?  Well now you can. The Sugar Inc. blog network (ShopStyle, PopSugar, FabSugar, BellaSugar) targeting 18-40 women, has just partnered with leading fashion brands to launch a Facebook-based game app, pitched as a ‘FarmVille [...]

A heads up on a free Mashable-sponsored social commerce webinar next week (Wed July 28, 12 noon EST) from Alvenda and Hallmark: “Learn How Hallmark and Alvenda Launched a Social Commerce Channel on Facebook” Details below, and registration here.  Social Commerce Today will be participating, supporting David Saville, Innovations Product Manager, Hallmark and Wade Gerten, [...]

Incase you’ve missed it, the ever-insightful Paul Chaney, social media consultant, and contributor to Practical E-Commerce is running a series of articles reviewing the growing number of social media store/storefront applications that allow businesses to sell directly within social media – primarily Facebook. In the first three articles (one, two, three), Paul has cast a critical [...]

It’s good to feel part of something big – so here’s the latest 15 minute inspirational TED talk – from popular science author Matt Ridley (The Red Queen, The Origins of Virtue, Genome, The Rational Optimist) at Oxford University – on “When Ideas Have Sex.” So what does ‘the sex life of ideas’, whatever that is, have to [...]

Just as Yipit, DealRadar, and DailyFlock have emerged as clearing houses for group-buy deals from Groupon, LivingSocial et al, the group-buy phenomenon has given rise to another new business opportunity – marketplaces for buying and selling purchased-but-unused group-buy vouchers. New marketplace sites such as CoupRecoup, Lifesta, and DealsGoRound allow people to post their hastily purchased [...]