Social Shopping @India

Along with all the social networking sites, there is a new wave of online shopping thats catching up , termed as " social shopping " it is nothing but the term to describe the gettting of like minded consumers on a single platform and harnesses their bargaining power , by the sheer number power .
In its other avataars it uses the model of connecting to local retailers , and gets the best price comparison or it uses the price comparison and review mode .
The most important marketing tool all these plaforms are trying to use is the much debated and discussed tool ,whose time has come , thanks to the internet ie WOM , word of mouth ! the platforms either give/or inform the "best deals off the street" .

In the US of A , social shopping is already an established platform , the following are the sites the blog could dig out

ThisNext.com: Users can browse recommended products, add them to their wish lists, recommend
Crowdstorm.com: This site measures the buzz around products based on user recommendations. Popular items go to the top of the list.
Kaboodle.com: Users create wish lists with photos and links to products for sale online. It’s easy to post a summary of anything found on the internet. Got sold for a bomb to a leading US network !
Stylehive.com: This is the hot site for women’s fashions and interests.
Wists.com: Users tend to focus on interesting new products and share links to the ones they want to buy.

In India this platform seems to be a last year phenomenon :the blog has dug out the following sites

http://www.naaptol.com/ : This Mumbai based portal launched in the begining of Jan08 ,got a stake sold to the BCCL group ( must add quite fast in 6 months flat ) , BCCL group are the guys behind the Times of India , thus media drive was never an issue ,ie has pushed traffic , has the best traffic ratings of Alexa of 14000 odd , the model tries to link up the consumer with the neighbourhood retailer at the lowest prices .Dont have any transaction value details currently ,our ratings based on traffic ,visibilty , categories dealt ,model etc is a 3.5 out of 5 ( very good )

http://www.storrz.com/ :Bangalore based , the home page a bit confusing for a new consumer although muct add that we didnt spend too much time on the blog ,although the blog has quite interesting categories , has a alexa traffic ranking of 1 lakh , no business volumes known ,our blog ranking of this platform is 3 /5 ( good )

http://www.govasool.com/ : Again Bangalore based ,the new kid in the block has made a good attempt to keep its home page clean , but needs to relook at the categories needed, unlike others this platform completes the transaction ie its an end to end shopping model ,could do well with targetted marketing .Alexa traffic rating is way behind the other 2 , as its new , no business volume known ! ,our blog ranking of this platform is 2/5 ( long way to go ! ) has potential to do well and the best , needs to act with speed >>

Talking abt speed , the blog believes this space would soon get cluttered its time that whoever wants to make it big needs to act with speed in establishing itself as a brand in this domain , with clear service differentiation , strong supply chain , clearly defined consumer segment led product categories ,backed with a strong customer referrals ,remember ,WOM ! They also need to sail thru the current tough times with a defined strategy to get over the tide , by still getting the consumers in with the "best deals off street",Say at least by the saving of petrol cost by staying at home and shopping plus the discount on MRP ! some feedback welcome !