‘As your mother always told you, “It’s good to share.” Well, now it just got profitable,’ says brand new social shopping site haveyouseen. Based on the premise that friends like to share – whether it’s clothing recommendations, product testimonials and general tidbits of info from a pal to a pal – haveyouseen claims that it’s now going to pay social shoppers for ‘for doing what comes naturally’.
It’s a logical next step for an increasingly tech-savvy e-commerce world, but before we go any further, what is social shopping? (Yup, us too.) According to Wikipedia, social shopping is ‘a method of e-commerce where shoppers’ friends become involved in the shopping experience.’ Not much change there, then.
In the same way that your mates were integral to the shopping experience when it was 100% IRL changing room-based (‘You can’t buy that! You look like a turnip!’; ‘You MUST buy that, you look like a goddess mixed with Cheryl Cole’), they are integral now, too. Just from the safety of a smartphone or computer screen. Which, let’s be honest, is a lot safer anyway. Changing room catfights are unseemly.
haveyouseen works by cutting out affiliate fees. Where a brand pays out billions of pounds every year to the e-tailer hosting it – say, Free People on Shopbop – haveyouseen lets you, the consumer, do the affiliation. See a dress that you like? Or hear about a ridonculous holiday deal in Jamaica that everyone must know about? If you simply recommend your favourite things to your mates (who must all sign up) using the medium of haveyouseen and then one of them goes on to make any sort of purchase on the back of your recommendations – then you will earn cold hard cash. It’s a similar sort of set-up to the blogger affiliate network rewardStyle, which pays bloggers a dividend when a reader buys something from the retailer that they have linked to, using the rewardStyle programme. Except with haveyouseen, you don’t have to bother being a blogger to get yerself a slice of the pie. Hurrah!
With 3,000 retailers already signed up, the site unofficially launches today, so go visit its pristine gills. It officially launches, of course, on 11th September – the first day of London Fashion Week, natch. Get in there early and you might just end up being one of those success stories that made £5,000 through a pyramid scheme by getting in on it early. We’re kidding! This is totally legit. You’ll feel like the first of your friends to sign up to Instagram – except this time you’ll be making dollar. Browsing never looked so good.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.