Buy.com seeks to take the lead in social networking with e-commerce

Buy.com plans to re-launch its recently acquired Metails.com social networking site next month with new features to support retail e-commerce, and it expects to be the leading provider of a technology platform that combines social networking with e-commerce, CEO Scott Blum tells InternetRetailer.com.

"Don’t underestimate the power of social networking," Blum says. "It will be a huge force to reckon with."

Buy.com will relaunch Metails later this month with a new design and brand, as it sharpens its focus on serving what Blum calls YUBs, or young urban buyers, he says. As social networking develops with e-commerce, it will bring about nothing short of a revolution in the retail industry, he predicts.

Blum says Metails has several patents pending on the technology it uses to combine social network with e-commerce – for example, the ability for a Metails user to visit a personal web page of a friend or anyone with similar interests, view products that person has purchased, and click an image of one of those products to link to a retailer’s buy page. Metails is designed so that buyers, as part of a community of buyers in the social network, will receive discounts from retailers ranging 2-10%. The person whose page showed a listing or image of the purchased product would also receive a reward, such as a coupon valued at 2-5% of the friend’s purchase, a Buy.com spokeswoman says.

As social network combined with e-commerce spreads, Blum says, he expects Buy.com and its Metails unit to lead the market in two ways: It will lead in directly serving YUBs, and it will be the primary provider of a technology platform to others that want to operate a social networking/e-commerce site. "We’ll stand out with our patents on e-commerce and social networking, and we’re big enough to protect them," he says.

The re-branded Metails will launch this month with a number of participating retailers, including Buy.com as one of its major anchors, Blum says. He hasn’t named the other retailers, but a spokeswoman notes that they’ll range from large to niche merchants. "They’ll be merchants that go after young demographics," Blum says.