Charlene Li, co-author of “Groundswell” and a thought leader on social and emerging technologies made some predictions for 2009 that included one for Social Shopping:

Shopping Goes Social. After a devastating holiday season, retailers will eagerly seek a way to improve results other than driving demand with deeper discounts. One option they will investigate will be how to insert people and social connections into the buying process, illuminating and influencing for the first time the Black Hole Of Consideration. As they lick their wounds in the first half of 2009, retailers will watch from the sidelines as media companies implement open social technologies like Facebook Connect and the Open Social Platform. But as the holiday season launches early after Labor Day, shoppers will find options to see what friends are recommending, buying and rating integrated into the shopping experience.

Charlene is spot on.  There are going to be lots of different takes on how to make this a reality.  At StyleHop we are building the first fashion affiliate e-commerce engine that allows you to order your product search results based on the rankings of your self-identified fashion peers. Take three women living in Des Moines. One may want to see the top designer jeans as ranked by other women in her neighborhood, another by her friends, and another by women in the East Village of NYC. Each may have similar demographic characteristics and even similar initial “clicks” but, by identifying their unique fashion peers, they each get highly specific lists of styles that work for them.

This is so much better than black box behavioral analytics which consistently give back poor recommendations in fashion. Peer review has credibility and gives a woman shopping online the ability to shop quickly and confidently knowing that, when she buys an item, the people she wants to look good in front of have already pre-approved her purchase.