‘The 7 Species of Social Commerce’ – ‘Mashable’

Lauren Indvik says, “Social commerce, sometimes abbreviated as “s-ecommerce,” is a term often used to describe new online retail models or marketing strategies that incorporate established social networks and/or peer-to-peer communication to drive sales. Or, as marketing consultant Heidi Cohen more succinctly defines it, it’s “social media meets shopping.”

But several well-known social commerce sites predate the popular rise of social networks by more than half a decade. eBay, a peer-to-peer selling platform founded in 1995, is one of them. Epilogue, a 13-year-old site that allows users to post, discuss and sell their own fantasy and sci-fi art, is another”.