A very cool tool has hit the social media scene - JustBought.it. The brainchild of Adarsh Pallian, JustBought.it employs affinity marketing though the feel of a Twitter account.
Here's how it works:
You need gift now desperately, but you're too late for eBay and Amazon wrt to shipping - a major bummer since the whole point of a Holiday gift is to get it to the recipient by the holiday (less you look like you waited until the sales on the 26th, but I digress...).
Now you're in a bind because the sites where you might find a very competitive price for your gift are no longer compelling.
Enter Justbought.it.
Members go shopping and basically "tweet" what they bought and where. You can "follow" these shoppers whether you know them or not. Once you are following them, because they have similar tastes and preferences from what you can see, you'll be alerted to some of the cool and clever gifts that they've "just bought" and where to go to get the same deal. You'll literally "follow them" to the store.
As the site says, "Justbought.it lets you find cool items by connecting you with people with similar taste and style as yours and by recommending stores tailored to your shopping patterns." You'll find the best deals in your zip code area based upon who you are following.
And although I'm a BlackBerry man, justbought.it sports a very cool (and FREE!) iPhone App that lets you take your shopping experience with you, and give and get updates while your plastic is flying!!!
Pallian calls this social shopping - and it's here to stay. "At the heart of Justbought.it is a fun and engaging community of people who love to shop. We encourage you to share advice, feedback and product suggestions to make shopping a much fuller experience."
Pallian based his invention around the idea that you are more likely to purchase an item that someone you know recommended than taking a gamble - like a referral of sorts. With other social media platforms integrated, you'll get the immediacy of Twitter with the more demographic-friendly Facebook, and all of it will be happening in real-time.