The Fancy (thefancy.com) got a lot of buzz because it managed to do something that Pinterest is not doing yet: it managed to monetize in an innovative manner. But The Fancy is still a walled garden, a carefully guarded community of geeks and posh users, who enjoy cutting edge gadgets and “fancy” stuff. The Fancy doesn’t do much for you: you’ll need to do all the work to maximize use of the network.
ShopVibe (shopvibe.com), on the other hand, attempts a slightly different approach, allowing users to keep track of their shopping, to follow products they like, and to create collections of things they want to buy.
ShopVibe seems to be the logical evolution in online shopping.
Unlike other networks that make the sign up process a pain, ShopVibe lets you sign up in a flash. No email notifications, no click here to confirm. Just log in with Facebook and you are done. Users can comment on products, ask for community advice, share on social networks and even buy – a bit like shopping meets Pinterest, but with an important advantage for buyers: ShopVibe’s smart bookmark will automatically search the web for better prices on 1000+ retail web sites. Do you realize the potential? ShopVibe will eventually make a huge disruption in the way people shop on the web.
Founded by Ken Leeder of RealTravel, and Sandeep Nawathe, ShopVibe has a strong board of advisors, which includes the likes of Gil Penchina and Joe Hurd. A strong leadership team is often indicative of future success and good things to come, yet somehow the startup maintains its alpha status, and keeps a low profile. No one speaks about ShopVibe – not yet.
But ShopVibe has all the potential to revolutionize the way you shop. With its automatic ability to find better prices for your favorite products, it saves a lot of searching time, and more importantly, it has the potential to save you a load of cash. ShopVibe will render the search for coupon and deal sites obsolete. Just remember that you read it here first.