With Facebook’s latest changes, a lot of developers are rushing to get a piece of the company’s new focus on applications. Sneakpeeq is one app that is partnering with Facebook as part of this new initiative and is excited about the opportunities with the Open Graph.
It is a social commerce application that utilizes Facebook’s tools to create a social commerce platform. According to Henry Kim, the President and Co-founder of Sneakpeeq, the app actually creates a shopping experience on Facebook that is very similar to shopping offline.
Could you see yourself shopping on Facebook instead of going to the mall? Let us know.
As Kim explained to us, in the real world, friends go to the mall together. When an item catches one person’s eye, he or she checks out the price and has their friend to come over to offer an opinion. Sneakpeeq tries to create this same experience on Facebook through a gaming platform.
Since Facebook users are accustomed to games, Kim felt that a gaming approach would be better than trying to introduce an entirely new shopping experience. They studied game mechanics of other popular games and came up with an interesting idea that encourages consumers to include lots of friends.
When a Sneakpeeq user looks at an item and wants to know the price, he or she gets to “peeq” at the price. However, as he or she shares the item with friends, the price of it goes down, thus encouraging more sharing.
Since shopping is a social experience and Facebook is one of the main places where friends socialize online, Kim told us that Sneakpeeq and Facebook fit together perfectly.
“If you’re alone in the mall, that’s not fun,” he said. “What Facebook does is it provides that audience and makes it fun.”
“It enables users to help their friends discover new products,” Kim added.
Sneakpeeq has over 350 brands including national brands such as Kate Spade and Roxy for its users to choose from. Kim told us that the app will roll out of beta in November and that users could expect to see more brands added to its selection and also more social integration.