IMshopping Launches Twitter-Based Shopping Advice Service
A new Twitter-based shopping advice service is publicly launching today. IMshopping lets you communicate with a staff of “shopping experts” to get any product questions personally answered any hour of the day.
IMshopping On Twitter
IMshopping works by its Web site and by Twitter (@imshopping). All you do is send an @ message to the account, and one of its guides will respond with an answer. You can also do the same thing directly on the IMshopping.com Web site. It’s like ChaCha, but far more specific.
“The site offers the experience of going into a store, speaking with a knowledgeable expert and being guided to the best products for your needs,” the company’s launch announcement states.
(Click image to see IMshopping’s response.)
IMshopping Responses
IMshopping says its experts will respond to queries within a “short period of time.” Looking at some Twitter-based questions from this morning, it looks like thus far, responses are taking around 40 minutes. One does wonder, however, whether the wait will increase as the service becomes more widely known and used. Also not yet clear is how the company intends to monetize its service.
IMshopping says it’s already answered more than 20,000 questions during its private beta testing period. You can track the Q&A on the company’s Web site or by doing a simple Twitter search.
IMshopping is operating with a $4.7 million round of Series A funding. It’s backed largely by South Korean mobile provider SK Telecom. The company is based in Santa Clara, California.
