Twenga develops social shopping feature

Twenga, the shopping search engine, has launched a new ‘social shopping’ feature to bridge the gap between social networks and products available online for purchase. It’s a clever and much needed move after statistics have shown that retailers

aren’t managing to meet customer demands through social networking facilities.

The new development by Twenga enables shoppers to access trusted buying advice from their networks before making a purchase – bringing the online experience ever closer to walking the high street. The feature is available on over 350million products from 160,000 online shops on Twenga’s sites, making it the first price comparison web site to introduce social shopping on this scale. Twenga sites include comparisons from top fashion names such as Karen Millen and French Connection.

According to research by UK digital marketing agency, Clicky Media, published in March 2011, there are nearly 30 million Facebook users and that is increasing by 1 million UK users each month. And with 3 in 4 Brits now shopping online, there seems to be room for an intersection where social networking communities integrate with online shopping sites.

So now on Twenga, when you find a product to purchase, one can involve friends on Facebook and Twitter in making the decision with questions such as; ‘what do you think of this product?’

The question, photo, product description and price are all emailed or instantly published on the social network of choice, allowing a conversation with friends on Facebook or Twitter.

Bastien Duclax, CEO and co-founder of Twenga said: “Combining the power of social networks with the size, depth and width of Twenga’s assortment of products is a powerful breakthrough in the Internet business." He continues, ‘“Providing instant interaction with social networks gives online shoppers the opportunity to turn to the friends or family members they trust most.”

Founded in 2006, Twenga offers products from retail sites over 15 countries and also has subsidiaries in Brazil and China. This new development comes after the appointment of Michael Keaton and Sagi Shorrer as Senior Management from Microsoft and Google respectively. Twenga sites received 45 million visits in 2010.