Mashable / 5 + 5 More Social Shopping Trends

5 Mashable Hot Social Shopping trends courtesy of Clay McDaniel of social media marketing agency, Spring Creek Group, and then five more from his readers and us.  Clay asks the pertinent question – “what is social shopping?”.  Alas no answer is offered, only a list of illustrative examples.  Good examples though.

1. Instantaneous Product Reviews – live product reviews – use Twitter search or Blippr to get latest reviews or pull in your social network with Facebook Connect to get new reviews (AYN – ask your network).

2. Real-Time Deals – Twitter deal feeds such as @woot, @bingcashback, @slickdeals, @fatwallet.

3. Group Gifting – gift together / collective purse tools like Lolligift, Best Buy’s Pitch In and Edivvy.

4. Buying Advice – follow fashion advisors and their advice on Twitter @Coutorture or @highsnobiety, Facebook (Rachel Zoe) or join a fashion-forward social shopping network such as Shopflick, Us Trendy or invitation-only sample sale such as Rue La La and Gilt.

5. Group Giving – charity-ware in social media (widgets, registries) that allow users to collaboratively support a cause.  Facebook Philanthropy allows charities not only to receive money, but also allows charities and charity recipients to let donors know what their money has bought (Heifer International cited, Dreambank added).  Halo polishing in public.

And five more noted in the comments section and from us…

6. Wanted Lists – like Pikaba; post what you want to buy and your criteria (e.g. laptop for under $500), get buying advice from your social network, and review offers from merchants.  Good for getting friends’ input, shopping when you know exactly what you want.

7. Social Bookmarking Tools like Wishpot, Stylefeeder, Stylehive, Kaboodle and ThisNext that allow people to save and share interesting things they find in stores and online – as well as other shopping related activities such as publishing reviews, recommendations and wishlists.  Often combined with a price comparison engine, personal recommendations and coupons.

8. Deal Directories – crowdsourced deal directories like justboughtit (local) and retailmenot (0nline) that allow people to share deals and finds

9. Shop Together (e.g. DecisionStep) tools that allow shoppers to co-browse sites with their contacts

10. Group Buy sites such as Dell Swarm and Groupon that allow people to participate in the co-creation of new products

Any other trending social shopping tools?  There’s ‘Social Configuration‘ sites such as Threadless that allow people to participate in the co-creation of new products, social marketplace sites like Etsy, social storefronts (Shopify, Amazon aStores).  And then there’s always virtual world shopping (e.g. in Second Life)…