Go to the Mall with Your Friends Without Leaving Your Living Room: eBay Group Gifts.

I go to the mall on my own. This is because I never to go the mall unless I absolutely have to for birthday or Christmas present reasons. If you ever see me in the mall with others, you can know that I've been dragged there against my will.

I am not the norm.

I realize that groups of people socially shop all the time. They always have and always will. But with online shopping getting more and more of our hard-earned money, the whole 'group shopping experience' has been dying.

Not any more.

Social Shopping has been gaining speed, I'm told. It even has an official term: Social Commerce. As far as I'm aware, this has been done through the means of Social Media users and separate, non-convergent technologies. I actually experienced this over the weekend as my Mom and Dad used their Blackberry to take a picture of a shirt that they thought I'd like as they were shopping and emailed it to me before buying it. I did not like it. That Social Shopping, er, Commerce exchange saved them money. And it saved me the guilt of letting it sit in my closet unworn. Win-win.

To capitalize on this insight, today eBay announced the launch of its Group Gifts service, enabling people to use the power of their social networks to collectively purchase gifts.

Andy Palmer, manager of buyer experience for Group Gifts, shared why they came up with this service. “The inspiration came from a couple of places. First, eBay saw that people were using social websites to buy virtual gifts for their friends at a very high frequency. We thought that it made sense to take that to the next level and help people come together to buy actual gifts. Perhaps more importantly, eBay recognized that the process of group gifting as it exists in the world today can be difficult and frustrating at times, which is a shame because giving as a group is a wonderful way to give people bigger, better gifts without spending too much during these tougher economic times."

Makes sense, Andy. Makes sense.

There are also other cool features, like 'Social search suggestions'. “Social search suggestions are gift suggestions eBay makes for your friend based on information we’ve pulled from their Facebook profile. These suggestions are what eBay considers ‘targeted inspiration.’ You’ll see a results set after clicking on one of the suggestions that will be relevant to your friend’s interest while delivering a broad spectrum of related items."

You can also, of course, ask friends to pitch in on a gift for someone. To do this, you can send email invites or Facebook invites privately; spread the word publicly by posting on Facebook or Twitter; or share the unique group gift URL, which directs users to the group gift page.

Cool. If I liked shopping I would do this. And as someone who does not like shopping, in fact, I would still join in on the fun. ~ p

(Source: Mashable)