There are a lot of smaller companies on the rise. I particularly like Woot.com where there is a new deal every day. The community actually does chat about the deals and I do find out about good deals on Twitter.
Another site that is on the rise is Groupon. I like the idea of getting together a group to ensure a deal happens, and this sometimes get influencers to spread the news of a certain deal just to make it happen. Groupon recently raised a massive round valuing the company at $1.35 billion.
Although Amazon and Ebay are trying to be more discoverable, I've not seen much effort in leveraging on social commerce by them, even on Cyber Monday. I don't blame them as they are cash rich companies, and can acquire what they lack. For example, Amazon recently made a $1.2 billion acquisition of Zappos, which I would say is a leader on customer service using Twitter and social media.
With the rise of Groupon, Gilt, LivingSocial, Vente Privee or even a possible Facebook e-commerce site, we can be assured that social commerce sells, and in the near future, I would love to see more social e-commerce site giving better interaction and engagement as we know that is what that really sells.
-- Robin Low
