According to a press release from early this morning, Shopntella is a brand new, fully-integrated social eCommerce site. This site goes “beyond price comparison and online shopping sites to provide users with intelligent, real-time product-purchasing advice from their social networks and a community of users.” The site is still undergoing private beta tests, but is scheduled to become public in September. (See below for information about getting a sneak peek of the site). Shopntella is expected to utilize social-rich sources of information, such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, to gather the feedback and opinions from users. Shopntella will analyze online reviews, tweets, Facebook posts, and YouTube tags in order to bring “the online buying experience closer to physical shopping.”
One feature of Shopntella will be the “Ask a Question” module, which will allow users to pose questions about products to their friends and acquaintances in social circles, as well as industry experts and the entire Shopntella community. According to Shopntella CEO Adam Roozen, “Shopntella is an intutive way to shop with the wisdom of the crowds – it’s an easy, approachable method to finding the right products for you. Gather opinions from your friends, see expert reviews and price compare, all without leaving your computer.” Another feature of Shopntella will be its proprietary ranking system, called the ntella score, which will quickly identify new, trending, and popular items by gauging what millions of shoppers are talking about and ranking the products accordingly.
Since Shopntella is not yet available to the public, we are still not entirely certain what the site will entail. Those interested can go to the website and provide their email address for a sneak peek. But don’t get too excited. I provided my email address and was taken to a page that informed me that in order to get access sooner, I needed to invite at least 3 friends using the unique link provided to me. It also says that the more people I invite, the sooner I will get access to the site. As of this point (according to the site), I have had 5 clicks on my link and 3 people sign up. And I still haven’t received my invite code so I can get a sneak peek of the site. I’m not holding my breath. I’m also not thrilled about having done what was necessary and still have not been able to see the site. I wish you better luck. As soon as I get access, I will post screenshots of what I see.
Even though we haven’t seen it yet, Shopntella has the potential to garner a lot of attention, especially from manufacturers and retailers who could collaborate with Shopntella to receive insight into what their customers are saying in real-time. Shopntella will also have some features geared specifically towards retailers and brands, such as providing custom branded answers in the Q&A section, the ability to utilize data, and receive valuable insights into the conversations surrounding their brands and products. Also, keep your eyes open for a mobile app that will extend the Shopntella experience to physical stores where users will be encouraged to research and consult their friends (via Shopntella) while shopping in the real world.
We will continue to check out their Facebook page and Twitter feed for the most recent information. We look forward to seeing what Shopntella looks like. For their sake (and ours), I hope to receive my sneak peek invite code very soon.
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/ms
