How Zebo is Serving Your Need for Show-and-Tell

Show and Tell isn’t just for grade school anymore. The recent kid on the block just got the newest iPod model, and he isn’t afraid to broadcast it to the world; and it’s not on a YouTube-style video clip, either. Today’s freshest spin on sharing your voice, opinion, or anything else for that matter has found its way to online shopping and sharing. Sharing the contents of your closet and your shopping cart with the rest of the online audience is possible through sites such as Zebo. Zebo has termed itself the ‘World’s Largest Repository of What People Own.’ Its mission is simple; to create an online social networking platform that allows people to share what they own, and if they choose, sell it to interested parties.

Zebo is different from eBay. eBay focuses more on the seller-buyer relationship, whereas Zebo may be based on a ‘friends first’ model. If you’re not afraid to be defined by what you own, then Zebo is the place for your. Both retailers and independent sellers can take part by featuring their products and items up for sale at their lowest price; but the difference with Zebo is that you can categorize two basic lists for yourself. ‘What I Want’ and ‘What I Own.’ Sharing these lists with friends, family, or social networks is one of the goals (or perhaps, side effect?) of the site, as the social site is geared towards exchange of information on these basic precepts.

Zebo is certainly attractive to your average materialist. Think of how easy it is to blast your profile of all your coveted possessions, share them with friends, and covet your neighbor’s recent purchase of the plasma TV. It’s a new take on an ego-centric activity of being the neighborhood showoff, only now it’s done on a worldwide scale!

As the site grows, it could highlight some great market research potential for what people are buying. It probably won’t be more than what an Amazon.com’s market research team could pull together, but it would certainly bring to light the effectiveness of audience responsiveness to particular product pushes. When the repository shows an influx of blue iPod cases on everyone’s ‘What I Own’ list, you can rest assured you’re not the only one in your office with the latest and greatest. And when the next Playstation model is on everyone’s ‘I want’ list, there may be a chance that Sony will tweak their marketing strategy. Or create a targeted pre-selling list from the information.

Whatever the case may be, Zebo is a fresh spin on the online shopping databanks available today. Sites such as Amazon.com, Froogle, and other shopping sites continue to populate the internet allowing participants to share and interact with other users. However, when social networking capabilities are added to the mix, the activity becomes more targeted, specialized, and user-specific. Personalizing today’s key activities online, whether it’s accessing the news, obtaining neighborhood reports, or community events logs, are growing niche markets in social networking. Zebo is a new avenue in the retail entertainment and shopping sectors, with potential to grow into fresh territory.