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Inc. 5000 Entrepreneur & Store Owner Brian Esposito’s Tips on Growing an Online Business

We came across Brian Esposito, the CEO of Avenue You Beauty Store,  last week and immediately knew we had to feature his great store on the KikScore blog.  Brian’s energy and passionate entrepreneurial spirit even comes across in his emails that he sends out.  We figured that the small business and startup community just needs to hear from Brian as he has so much to teach all of us.  Do not take our word for it by the way, his company was awarded by our favorite magazine Inc. the very prestigious honor of being listed as an Inc. 5000 company.  We are excited and honored here to not only have Brian share his thoughts with us here but also be one of our KikScore customers!

1. Tell us about AveYou and who you focus on serving?

AVEYOU is Your Unique Beauty Boutique.  We specialize in carrying some of the most exclusive beauty and personal care products in the industry.  Our entire concept is being all about you!  Our loyal online and in-store customers.  We focus on servicing beauty buffs around the globe.  With our extremely friendly domestic and international flat rate shipping rates we are able to put orders into our customers hands very quickly.  99.9% of all orders are processed and shipped the same day and are packed in our eco-friendly reusable AVEYOU personal shopping bag.  We are very big on personal experiences and sometimes that is very hard to accomplish with online shoppers.  Because of that we try as hard as possible to achieve that result when a shopper opens their AVEYOU box.  The box is carefully wrapped and all items are placed in the appropriate size AVEYOU Eco Friendly Reusable Shopping Bag.  Also included in that bag are samples, promotional items, coupons or special discounts on future orders, and of course the correct item(s) ordered by our shopper.    AVEYOU currently has one of the highest positively ranked feedback (check out the comments on Amazon!) in the beauty and personal care industry.  Our product selection is very important to our brand and image.  Because we specialize in very exclusive products, we try not to carry items that can be found at drug stores, discount stores, or supermarkets.  Because we do not discount or jeopardize the integrity of our brands, manufactures and vendors are at a point in our growth cycle where they want to be part of our company and be placed on our shelves, or web site.
2. How did you get your started selling online?

In 2002 we re-vamped our store and philosophy.  We created a new brand known as Avenue You.  The store was placed in Deal, NJ.  A very prominent and affluent area.  As the store opened in April sales were incredibly strong and stayed that way all summer long.  Come September we ran into a dilemma, as most of the town was filled with summer or vacation homes for those residents.  We needed a way to reach these customers all year round in order to survive.  It was then when I created and developed AVEYOU.com.  The site was mainly created to keep in touch with our local shoppers who were back to their winter homes for the season.  However because of the brands we carried any my passion for marketing and branding, customers from all over the world quickly began ordering at AVEYOU.com.  I knew we had something special and needed to be focused on and enhanced.  Because of how quickly we process and ship orders, people began talking and to this day word of mouth has been our best marketing tool.

3. What inspires you to grow the AveYou business?

Pride.  Whatever I put my name on I do all I can to ensure it doesn’t fail.  As a family owned and operated business you create a sense of home for the company and our employees.  As we began to grow and hire great employees, they also became part of our family.  We are at a point where we have created an incredible team of beauty consultants who each have so many different talents and strengths.  I have, and will continue, to do all I can to ensure each and every one of them will always have a job/home at AVEYOU.

4. If you had 2 lessons learned from your business that you could pass on to others about selling online, what are those?

The first would be to be honest.  This was my number one asset and at some times biggest downfall when creating AVEYOU.com.  The beauty industry is still filled and mostly run by its originators.  These people are threatened and do not understand the internet.  When I would go after a line I would have to spend hours and sometimes even days convincing them that the internet is a great place to be and we are not a company that would never jeopardize the integrity of your brand by discounting, diverting, or by not giving it the respect and dignity it deserves.  I am not sure about other industries, but I can still say to this day that we run into problems with manufactures not wanting their brands to be sold online.  Every vendor or manufacturer we work with, fully understands our business model and are kept 100% in the light as to what we do and where we sell.  The 2^nd lesson I have learned is be fully compliant with every aspect of an online presence.  Of them I strongly suggest having a privacy policy that is backed up by a firm or organization, run your emails in an ethical and CAN-SPAM compliant manner, and make sure your site is fully PCI compliant with SSL security to not only protect yourself, but to also protect your customers who are choosing you over the thousands of other potential sellers.

5. Where has AveYou focused most of its energy this year?

While we continue to gain market share with our online presence, we are looking to once again rebrand and re-energize our store location.  We are working on a brand new prototype store that will offer more of a studio feel where our shoppers can come in, try products, have makeup, mini-facials, and nails done.  The personal experience is crucial for our brand and image.  We want our customers to feel special and of course feel beautiful.  Having more types of fun energy filled services that can be done in our boutiques will definitely create a stronger bond between our customers and AVEYOU.  Once the new prototype boutique is finalized we are looking to launch more locations in areas similar to Deal, NJ

6. What do you see as 2 new trends in for small business and in your business?

A trend we are seeing is to be careful where dollars are being spent.  Using money wiser and in areas that have a successful ROI is overshadowing the riskier areas.  Another trend is tapping into more social media platforms and applications.  Combining sites such as Facebook with applications developed by Wildfire you are very quickly able to promote coupons, contests, and/or sweepstakes.

7. If your business/store could be any movie or movie character, what movie/movie character would it be and why?

I am sure this has been used a lot in many situations but it would have to be the movie Rudy and we would be Rudy.  Every day we are met with opportunities, but also challenges.  The challenges come in many shapes and sizes.  The fortunate thing to date is that we have been able to overcome those challenges and survive.  Even through the worst of economical times our company was able to grow and become part of Inc. 500|5000 2010 list of fastest growing private companies in America.

8. If AveYou could have a dream spokesperson for your company who would it be and why?

Aishwarya Rai as she is often cited by the media as the most beautiful woman in the world.  She would make a tremendous spokesperson for AVEYOU Beauty Boutique.  Having fans and admirers all over the world and with no negative news she would be exactly the type of woman we would want relaying our brands messages and image.

9. What is the biggest challenge that AveYou faces as a small business and how do you work to overcome that challenge?

As a small business I believe our biggest challenge is gaining trust in a potential new customer.  If a shopper sees a Macys logo or a Best Buy logo they are not going to question is this a secure company/site.  As a brand that is growing, we are not mainstream and are years away from becoming a staple in the beauty industry.  We overcome that challenge by gaining one new customer at a time.  Proving to that customer we are legitimate business, that is not going to sell their name to any third parties, is going to ship their order, their most private and intimate information is in a very secure area, and if there is any problems whatsoever with their order we will do everything we can to correct it and make it right.

10. Do you have any parting thoughts for our readers and the small business community?

I know it has been a tough few years, but if you have the capabilities and mental strength do not give up.  If you strongly believe in what you are creating or have developed stand behind it 100%.  Don’t let outside influences discourage your dreams or interfere with your visions.  All you really have in this world is your beliefs.  Take that vision, access all the tools you need, build the necessary team, and then make It happen.

Thanks Brian for sharing your thoughts.

Please let us know your thoughts on this interview with Brian Esposito.

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Archive for the ‘Online & Small Business Resources’ Category

The Startup Team and Life Changing events

When your team is lean and everyone is wearing multiple hats, it causes quite the glitch in everyday functions when one (or multiple) team member experiences a life changing event. How do you prepare for it? There are some situations that are emergency impact that cannot be prepared for, but others can.

Since the inception of KikScore there have been a mixture of life changing events across the team…
— 3 new births across different team members (all first time parents),
— spousal job changes
— infants becoming toddlers
— loss of pets (and additions)
— demanding day job impacts
— and an upcoming one for me – moving cross-country to ‘the big city’ for an amazing new day job opportunity.

So how does a small night/weekend entrepreneurial company stay focused?

It is very easy for the impacted member to get caught up in the life event and KikScore takes a back seat.  While not the intention, human nature makes us selfish.

We can’t let this happen as the business would in turn suffer.  As a small team, we need to regroup and delegate items out to others  during the transition time, arming the business with communication channels to stick together and react to customer needs.

Some other tips that can prove useful are to continue to conduct weekly meetings to re-establish expectations. The team member going through the transition (me soon) should be able to commit to a once/week discussions to ensure they stay informed and can lend a hand as their life calms down and they rediscover their head.

How has your small business coped with  life changing events?  Please share your story with KikScore.

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Archive for the ‘Online & Small Business Resources’ Category

Is a Trained Entrepreneur More Likely to be Successful in Small Business?

When KikScore came to be, the team was comprised of members from a variety of backgrounds and influence.  We banded together and outlined the best approach across our experience to build the business — which is still fluid and we continue to review our progress and make changes, you have to!

We had many say ‘what do you know about starting a business’?  We answered, the practicality of having those lessons learned from previous experience is critical in making a new business a success.  And of course we all have some entrepreneurial zest within us.

There are always those out there thinking that the quick fix money maker opportunity is business for yourself — think again my friend, it takes work, lots of work and perseverance.

It amazes and intrigues me that there are actually college programs geared at entrepreneurship.  Are they really more successful in the long run?    I had a good friend who went into one of these programs a few years ago… unfortunately I’ve lost touch with him, but last I’d heard, he was working for a big business.

Do you know anybody who has taken these classes and has a billion dollar business today?

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5 Post-Labor Day Steps To Help Your Business Close 2010 Strong

I went to Ohio for Labor Day weekend to visit my family and also be surrounded by Ohio State Buckeye madness (come on you beat Marshall, lets see what happens this week against Miami, Fl!).  The 8 hour trip from DC there and then back again today got me thinking that we now only have a little less than four months left in 2010.  Wow, this year has passed quickly and I got to thinking about my “to do” list for KikScore.  I kept coming back to one thing as we left Ohio and made our way through WV, PA, MD and finally DC – – –  I have to get my rear end in gear!  So here are my thoughts on how I am going to approach the last four months of the year to help our team at KikScore increase our chances of success.  Maybe these steps will help your small business and startup:

1) Revisit 2010 Goals – As the months of 2010 have passed by, we are constantly reminded of what we want to accomplish by the end of the year.  Now is the time to look at those 2010 goals again and take a hard look in the mirror.  Many things have happened in the last few months which may have switched the focus from one goal to another or to a new objective that popped up mid-year. Now is the time to look at your collective goals and objectives and determine what can be accomplished by focus, planning and executing. We did this back after Memorial Day when we discussed checking our goals at that time! Now is the time to eliminate the items that you will not be able to accomplish and really devote the time, energy and effort to goals and objectives that can be accomplished or substantially progressed by December 31, 2010.

2) Outline Concrete Steps to Execute on Your Plan – For each of the key goals you see a path to accomplishing, make sure you have a plan on how you are going to accomplish these items by the end of the year.  Not just a general plan, but outline concrete steps that you can objectively measure your progress on through the coming weeks and months.

3) Get Low Cost Help – So one of the conversation pieces between my wife & I (between trying to soothe 8 month Asha to sleep through the mountains of West Virginia), was how more small businesses and startups should use high school and college interns.  We at KikScore have a few interns and they have been a tremendous help.  One of them even writes for the blog and her post on identity theft and kids’ social security numbers has a KikScore blog record for most Retweets on Twitter!  So when you are looking at your goals and your overall plan to achieve those goals, carve out a few discreet projects that an intern can help you with.  That help will free up your time to focus on other key steps in your implementation plan.  Some great sites to find interns are your local college career planning websites.  You can visit those sites and fill out a job opening for any type of position.  We have received applications from students of University of Maryland, Cornell University and American University!  Interns can really help give you “more hands” around the business.

4) Talk to Your Customers – As we push to meet our 2010 goals and close the year strong for our business, we are making an effort to talk to our customers so they can give us feedback.  Customers can sometimes provide very useful and even unexpected information and insight into what your business should focus on.  Also one idea for your small business or startup is to simply ask the question what do your customers need to help them close the year strong.  You may even get some information that can help you increase your own sales just by asking your customers what else you can do to help them!

5) Measure Team & Business Progress Daily, Weekly & Monthly – Often we all get buried in the daily slog of activities and endless distractions (even more of a risk with NFL season starting & Fantasy Football!).  What results from that is we do not track our progress and then deadlines slip, tasks do not get completed and we end up hearing the ageless excuse – “I am too busy, I don’t have time for that.”  For entrepreneurs and especially operators of small businesses and startups, that excuse can destroy your chances of business success.  The remedy is accountability.  That is accountability to yourself, your team and to the plan that you have developed to complete the goals.  We have discussed the importance of accountability previously in this post about keeping your business focused.  So every day, at the end of each week and month set aside time to review your task list, the overall plan and where you are at for meeting the objectives/goals.   Then make adjustments accordingly to help you execute on your plan.

And always remember the quote of Hal Moore: “There is always one more thing you can do to increase the odds of success.”

Please tell us your thoughts on how you are going to close strong in 2010.

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Online Business – Necessity Or Luxury?

Is your favorite restaurant or local boutique online?    Would you be more likely to purchase something from the local boutique if you could order the latest chenille scarf from your bedside table?

Website hosting companies such as Shopster have made it very simplistic to create a new website and start selling online in minutes.   Having an online site builds trust between consumer and merchant because it can allow a browse before you buy (or eat).   Yet there are still a great number of local restaurants and shops that are reluctant… why?

With the boom of social media, not having a site could be detrimental to your company’s future success.

There are other ways to be active in the online community without a dedicated ‘full’ website.   Creating a dedicated company blog promotes trust and transparency by sharing your company values, and can be done without a full website.

You may think if you only have one or two items to sell, a website is overkill. Even if it’s just one product (such as this unique product for avid boaters –TuftedTopper), the mass consumer base enjoys the convenience of online purchasing. As a merchant, you need to determine what drives the intrigue in your product base.

You’re here reading this, do you have an online business?

How have you built trust and transparency between yourself and your consumers to create repeat customers?

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iTunes Shopper Fraud, Overstock News, New Denver 4G Service and Another Sign the World May be Coming to an End

iTunes Shopper Data Leak – I was reading in TechCrunch the other day about how some fraudsters apparently hacked into the iTunes accounts of some customers that had their accounts attached to Paypal for payment and purchased thousands of dollars worth of music, videos, and applications.  It sounds like this was due to a glitch in the iTunes software and that Apple has agreed to make things right with the customers that were impacted but this is a reminder that money sitting in a Paypal account is essentially the same as a debit card attached directly to your bank account.  If someone gets a hold of your Paypal credentials, your actual money can be stolen instantly so shoppers should be very careful where they allow their Paypal information to be stored.

Overstock Starts a New Shopping Site – Overstock, a publicly traded company, announced yesterday that they are opening a new “private” shopping club site that will offer exclusive deals on certain brand-name merchandise on a rotating basis every 24-72 hours.  This new online store called Eziba should compete with the likes of Vente Privée, Beyond The Rack and One Kings Lane.

Downtown Denver has 4G Service Through Sprint – Like I mentioned in a previous post, I have been the happy owner of a Sprint HTC EVO 4G for almost 3 months now and have been waiting with baited breathe for Clearwire and Sprint to activate their 4G network in Denver that they promised “before the end of 2010”.  Well, nobody is really saying anything yet, but I now get 4G service throughout the downtown Denver area and am loving it!

The Situation Commands $5 Million this Year – I try to stay away from tabloid-type news in my posts here but I just couldn’t stay away from this…in a sign that the apocalypse is near, Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino from the MTV reality series “Jersey Shore” is reportedly pulling down over $5 million this year from endorsements and salary.  Something is wrong with the world when a guy can make that kind of money for making out with trashy women in hot tubs and getting drunk in night clubs!

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Small Business & Entrepreneur Tips from Whitney Zimet of I Am The Maven

Today’s small business interview is with the fabulous Whitney Zimet of I Am The Maven. Whitney runs a really cool site that connects moms with local deals.  Some of these great deals include offers at cool restaurants, fun family activities, shops and even online deals on a range of items.  Whitney has taken her super diverse professional experience including a stint as a corporate marketing executive at Redken and she over the last 14 years has lived in LA, NY, DC, Ann Arbor, Atlanta and now Miami.  It was during these last 14 years that people started calling Whitney “The Maven.” So in 2008 she tapped into her small business, startup and entrepreneurial roots to start I Am The Maven.  Her motto is simple: connecting savvy moms to fabulous local deals at the best places! Whitney’s story is a great read for the small business community and she gives us all some great tips in this interview.

1. Tell us about I am the Maven and who you focus on serving?

I Am The Maven connects savvy moms with fabulous deals at the best places.  We find the best local shops, food, services and activities in the Miami area and provide coupons, behind-the-scenes videos and all the scoop to hook moms up with exceptional local businesses.

2. How did you get your started selling online?

After I graduated from Emory University, I was a pretty successful executive recruiter until I found my niche in corporate marketing/advertising with Redken in NYC.  I met my husband, then moved several times (Los Angeles, Ann Arbor, Miami) for his career.  Along the way, people started calling me their “Maven” (a.k.a. a go-to girl for recommendations on just about anything).  I wanted to meld the things I enjoyed and was good at at into my own business.  This would allow me to attend ballet recitals and generally be present in my children’s lives while keeping my brain sharp and my confidence as a woman and professional.  As a mom myself, I saw a need to cut through the clutter of traditional advertising and compel action amongst the mom community– specifically directing them to fabulous stuff that caters to their lifestyle (whether a doctor, a donut place or an eco-friendly carpet cleaning company).

3. What inspires you to grow the I am the Maven business?

Firstly, I feel that there are wonderful local businesses that many moms don’t go to or even know of because they are so busy running around and being totally overwhelmed.  Why not go to a local shoe store that really knows how to fit your child’s feet & carries the brands you want and some new ones you might not know about?  My dad had his own retail store for 27 years, so I have lots of empathy for small business owners.  Secondly, I want to create a winning formula for a business that can be franchised to other local mavens.  I believe there are a large number of smart, savvy women out there who may have put their own careers on hold or to the side to raise a family.  The standard 8-5 of corporate America is NOT friendly to moms and some of the other opportunities for flexible employment are not inspiring to me or make me feel uncomfortable about having to sell stuff to friends and family.  I feel that I Am The Maven is an unbelievable brand that, with the right local maven, can be a fulfilling and rewarding opportunity both for the maven herself and for the local business community.

4. If you had 2 lessons learned from your business that you could pass on to others about selling online, what are those?

I don’t actually sell anything online, rather I provide information, coupons, contests, videos and other fun stuff.  In March 2010 my website was relaunched after a year of development.  It was incredibly difficult and time-consuming but ultimately extremely successful.  My advice to people about an online presence is to keep it simple and clean and VERY easy to navigate AND to have a Content Management System (CMS) so you can update your site yourself.  Also, don’t neglect the SEO stuff.  If you send out emails to a distribution list, tailor the message for the groups.  For example, I don’t send emails detailing a special new patient rate at a Miami dentist to the people who elect to receive my “Online/Everywhere MavenDeals.”

5. Where will I am the Maven focus most of its energy this year?

We are expanding our presence to 35 local schools (offline we distribute reusable grocery bags called MavenBags filled with custom gift cards to Maven-Approved businesses) and will be attending more community events that focus on the family. Additionally, we’ll be leveraging the Maven-Approved brand by creating cross-promotions with non-conflicting featured businesses that allow them to get more bang for their buck!  Lastly, we’ll be adding staff locally so that I can begin to focus on franchising opportunities and other corporate initiatives.

6. What do you see as 2 new trends in for small business and in your business?

I feel that small businesses are recognizing that they can’t do everything themselves.  Like my business, there are others out there who are motivated to work with smaller businesses and are tailoring programs to meet their needs.  It used to be that it was all about the big accounts– big national names.  Now marketers, website designers and other professionals are coming up with ways to help smaller businesses in more sophisticated ways, that don’t cost an arm and a leg.  Another trend I see is that local businesses are teaming up to drive customers into their location– whether with events, cross-promotions, business improvement districts & local chamber of commerce.

7. If your business/store could be any movie or movie character, what movie/movie character would it be and why?

I guess I Am The Maven would be a cross of a less vicious version of Meryl Streep’s magazine editor character in “The Devil Wears Prada” (specifically her intolerance of anything sub-par) and Michelle Pfeiffer’s struggling career mom in “One Fine Day” (who made a costume out of duct tape and shoulder pads that were in her purse; also the romantic interest of George Clooney- yummy!)

8. If I am the Maven could have a dream spokesperson for your company who would it be and why?

This is a tough one as I am the maven.  Literally.  But I guess Oprah is a close second, although I don’t think she has kids.

9. What is the biggest challenge that I am the Maven faces as a small business and how do you work to overcome that challenge?

It’s absolutely critical that the businesses we promote meet the certain quality standards for value, convenience, the fun factor, price, selection, service, eco-friendliness (if possible), etc.  This is the cornerstone of the I Am The Maven brand.  Particularly when I began the business, it was a struggle to get certain businesses to participate because they were either already successful/awesome (which is why I approached them) or because they didn’t “get” what “Maven-Approved” would grow to mean in the community or the only businesses that were interested weren’t suitable for our audience.

It’s always difficult to turn away a shop or whatever that just doesn’t meet our standards.  But can you imagine if we worked with a shop that was totally disorganized with bad lighting in the fitting rooms and a salesperson who was no-where to be found?  That would compromise the integrity of our brand.  Another challenge is there is a certain amount of exclusivity to I Am The Maven, depending on the level of promotion the business elects.  For example, you won’t see 5 pizza places in the same general area on our website.  This limits the number of businesses we can promote, which of course limits our revenue.

10. Do you have any parting thoughts for our readers and the small business community?

I never thought I would be an entrepreneur (although if you ask my friends and family they would tell you they aren’t surprised) but the stay-at-home mom thing just wasn’t enough for me.  I looked at my professional strengths and what I actually ENJOY doing.  Sometimes those don’t mesh, but for me they did.  I thought about a problem in the marketplace that I could solve (moms finding out about good local places and being incentivized to go to them).  Then I put my nose to the grindstone and planned the heck out of my business concept. When I launched in October 2008, I began rather small and incrementally grew, never allowing my growth to outpace my revenue except on rare occasions (like my website re-build) when I knew I could re-coup.  I have stayed true to my voice and my brand and, with only a few unpleasant exceptions, followed my gut even when all the other signs pointed the other direction.  Being a successful small business owner and entrepreneur means you must be relentless in your pursuit of excellence. I love being my own boss!

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The Magic of Metrics

As a small business grows and not only builds the customer base but also expands the solution offerings, a metrics tracking method should be developed. There are a wealth of options of different metrics to track across any business. The hype for small companies seem to focus on SEO and website traffic metrics, but there are other business and process facing metrics that can greatly help a small business grow and succeed.

This article promotesmetrics are magic.  Key areas that can keep all team members in-check are to outline metrics surrounding milestones with dates and deadlines, and tracking of metrics like calls, presentations, programming modules, etc.

Depending up on the size and complexity of your business, utilizing a tool set to track and report on metrics could be very useful.  This provides the business leaders an avenue in which to review and evaluate trends and to determine if new solutions are working as expected and increasing cash flow.

Metrics help to outline the quality and measurement of success for any given business, product or process.  As a small business owner, factoring quality into daily activities helps to keep the entire team focused on top quality solutions and practices

What defines a quality metric and tips how to determine where your solution measures up?  The key is to create a metrics roadmap early in your business cycle so that you can formulate processes and checkpoints throughout that adhere to it.

The metrics you track will change over time, as your business expands (or shrinks).  You must also be diligent in that tracking process and share out not only the positive metrics, but the negative ones as well with your entire team. The only way to improve upon your business processes and ensure quality is to define the metrics and make appropriate changes to continue to improve them.  And allow your business to evolve in a positive light by continuously reviewing the metrics and creating new benchmarks that define your business success.

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Is Google Good or Evil?

I was reading this article today on Gizmodo about how a “Vision document” recently released to the public was created by Google 2 years ago and makes reference to the fact that Google was considering selling Internet surfing and search data from visitors to their site.

This would be a big deal for a few reasons if it is true because Google has claimed for years that they would never user their customer’s personal data for “evil” reasons like making billions of dollars.  This would also be big news because there are other companies like BlueKai and Exelate that currently offer similar “tracking services” for help companies determine what the best keywords are to use in their ads to get the most clicks.  Needless to say, if Google decided tomorrow that they were going to be in this business, these companies would instantly be put out of business and Google would be the leader in this area.

I think that this would also be big news for consumers and merchants because it just might change the way people think about and/or use Google.  If you knew that you were going to get a bunch of emails or targeted ads based on the words you searched on in Google I think you might actually think a little a more before you made that search or before you automatically typed “Google” into your web browser.  This may very well end up being the reason that Google also never does become “evil” and start selling this data because unless their competitors start to do the same, consumers may start moving to Bing or Yahoo if they feel like Google is “selling them out” or carelessly sharing their previous search data.

Would you consider stopping to use Google if they started sharing your searches with other companies for money?

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Twitter-bay-zon…Twitter, eBay and Amazon Combined into One App!

I was reading this TechCrunch article today about how Amazon just incorporated a Facebook tab/section into their website so that customers can supply their Facebook account information and then automatically see what their friends’ wish lists are or what CD their friends just purchased so they can buy it too.  I thought that this development was interesting because it is basically the largest eCommerce company integrating with the largest Social Networking company in this way and it could mark the beginning of a new trend.

What would be some more interesting eCommerce/Social Networking “mash-ups” that we could dream up here?  Another interesting match-up that I thought of in this area was the combination of Twitter and eBay.  I think that it would be very useful for people that are trying to sell a product in an auction on eBay to be able to automatically broadcast this auction over Twitter real-time as bids are being made.  To get a little crazier here we could even add an Amazon integration into the mix where users could see live streaming tweets on an Amazon product page of the same item being sold on eBay!  Let’s call it “Twitter-Bay-Zon”!

On second thought, I am guessing that Amazon wouldn’t be too happy about this partnership I just proposed here as it would directly interfere with the current used-item marketplace that they already have, but I think you are catching my drift here.  Are we about to see a major melding of the eCommerce and Social Networking companies online?  I think that it only makes sense and would lead to increased sales, advertising, and users for everyone involved…so why not?

Here are a couple more eCommerce/Social Networking mash-ups that I just thought of that would be interesting: MySpace & Amazon and YouTube & NetFlix. What are some other partnerships like this that you see forming in the next 5 years?  What company could you see your business partnering with to get an advantage over your competition in the same way?

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