What’s CoCarting? It’s the newest and greatest way to shop online with your friends and loved ones. It’s the next generation of online shopping.
Online shopping has become commonplace. In fact, global online retail sales are expected to exceed $7 trillion by 2025. But with online shopping comes a very familiar yet unspoken drawback — it can be very lonely and unfulfilling. People are relational, and shopping has always been relational until it retreated to the confines of our web browser.
Now, with CoCarting, people can shop online — with less hassle I might add — and enjoy the relational aspect of shopping. Here’s how CoCarting is changing the way we shop online together.
The Challenges of Online Shopping
Online shopping has come a long way since the first online purchase in 1984. Not only can we search for any product — and service — under the sun, we can have a plethora of items shipped directly to our door within two business days. With reviews, ratings, and online demos for nearly every product, you can purchase confidently without ever having to leave your home.
For many, including myself, the advances in online shopping have made a once laborious chore something enjoyable. It’s like Christmas every time you see that brown box sitting at your doorstep.
But, there are major drawbacks to online shopping:
- Sometimes you get a defective product
- The item doesn’t fit
- It doesn’t look good on you (think shirts, shoes, dresses, etc.)
- You bought the wrong product entirely
While these are some common drawbacks to online shopping, one of the most overlooked and underestimated challenges of online shopping is that you can’t shop with your friends — until now (more on than in a moment).
Now, this isn’t an issue for everyone, but many enjoy shopping because, well, they get to go out with friends or family.
Think back to your high school days. Did you go to the mall because you had loads of cash to spend — probably not? You went to the mall to hang out with friends and brush shoulders with the girls — or guys.
For many, shopping is a social experience. It’s an opportunity to connect with friends or loved ones and form memories. That’s one of the major drawbacks of online shopping — it’s impersonal — and one of the many reasons people prefer to shop in person.
The Rise of ‘Squad Shopping’
If you’re unfamiliar with the term, squad shopping is a less-than-mainstream term that refers to a form of online shopping with friends and family. Dave Bruno from Aptos says squad shopping is “an expression that refers to the use of video and/or screen-sharing technology to shop online with friends and family.”
A couple of companies, like Squadded and Verishop, started to change the way people approached online shopping, but the headlines didn’t last for long, and the terminology was lost to the pages of history. While brushed aside as another ‘passing fad,’ the emergence of squad shopping reminded us of one aspect of shopping that people crave — relationships.
That’s nothing new, though. Squad Shopping may have come to be during the pandemic when people literally couldn’t leave their homes to go out with friends, but the idea of shopping with your squad is as old as time itself.
And it’s not just about being around your friends or family — although social interaction is incredibly important — it’s about seeking their input. People value the opinions of others. A study by Power Reviews found that 97% of consumers read reviews before making a purchase. Which reviews are more trustworthy than those of your family and friends?
How CoCarting Improves the Online Shopping Experience
Have you ever been in one of these situations?
- Your “baby” just moved away to college and needs new clothes and shoes.
- You want to buy your teenage niece a birthday present, but she lives a world away — and you are not really sure what her interests are anyways.
- You and your siblings are trying to figure out what to get dad or mom for Christmas and spend hours exchanging hyperlinks to various products just to settle for a gift card because it’s easier.
- You or your friend moved away for work or school — but you loved shopping together.
The commonality in all these situations, and many others not listed here, is that you want to shop with someone else but can’t.
This is why CoCarting was born: to bring relationships into online shopping. It’s like squad shopping — but better.
What Exactly is CoCarting?
CoCarting by Social Shopper is the next generation of online shopping. The idea behind CoCarting is simple: enable people to shop online together in a meaningful, helpful, and enriching way.
CoCart stands for a co-owned shopping cart. You create a shopping cart, invite your family and friends to your cart, and then go shopping together, or as we like to call it — you go CoCarting. Everyone in the CoCart can add, delete, and vote on products inside the CoCart, plus the chat feature (and eventually video function) lets you interact in real-time.
No more hyperlink exchanges, no more hassle, just a great online shopping experience that’s relational and interactive.
With Social Shopper’s various integrations, you can shop for over 10 million products and counting, all in one location. You can keep your CoCart private or make it public and share it on social media for all to see.
Why CoCarting is a “Totally Different Shopping Experience”
Michelle L. from the Philadelphia area, one of our first CoCarting users, stated that CoCarting by Social Shopper is a “totally different shopping experience.” Michelle does a lot of her shopping online, and one of her struggles is finding the right product from the right brand.
“I really appreciate the ability to see items from different sites. It’s way easier than popping around to all the other sites,” Michelle recalled.
Yes, there are platforms out there (like Amazon) where you can find products from various manufacturers. But CoCarting is not just a platform to find products from countless sellers — although it does that well — CoCarting is almost like a new social network that provides unique interactions in a totally different way.
You create a CoCart, share it with your loved ones and friends, and go shopping together. Everyone shares the cart, gives their input on the items, and can communicate simultaneously with the chat function — and soon-to-be video chat function.
You simply tell your friends, “go into this and tell me which one you like better. That’s the uniqueness of CoCarting,” Michelle explained. And if you and your friends are available at the same time, invite them to go CoCarting. Hop on, use the chat function (or video once live), and communicate while you shop — all in the same place.
Michelle, like many of us, has friends across the country. She said, “It opens up a whole new social dialogue than you can currently have with your friends because you can talk about life in general while enjoying shopping together. It has the capability to help enhance relationships.”
That’s why CoCarting is totally different. It’s not just another site to shop online, it’s bringing relationships into online shopping.
How to Start CoCarting
Now that you know what CoCarting is all about, why wait? Try it out now. Here’s how to get started.
Step 1. Head over to the CoCarting website and create a free account. You can use Google or Facebook when you sign up if you prefer not to type in your information.
Step 2. If you manually type in your info, you’ll need to verify your email account. Be sure to check your promotions, spam, and other folders for the first email, and add us to your contacts or main inbox.
Step 3. Create your first CoCart and invite your friends.
Step 4. Start CoCartring! Shop for your favorite items, find new products, and most importantly, have fun with your CoStars (your friends and family members you share a CoCart with).
We’re revolutionizing the way we shop online.
