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Case Study 8


Case Study No. 8
Kaboodle—A Successful Social Shopping Web Site
Kaboodle is a social shopping Web site created in 2005. The idea for the Web site grew out of the frustration that Manish Chandra and his wife, Asha, experienced when remodeling their home. The process of finding products that matched their taste, identifying the retailers of those products, and searching for bargain prices was tedious and time consuming. As a result, Chandra created Kaboodle, an online social shopping community where members can discover and recommend new products. Kaboodle members can create shopping lists, read product reviews, and get help making purchasing decisions.62
Kaboodle members can install a Kaboodle browser toolbar, which includes an “Add to Kaboodle” button. As they are browsing the Web, members can click the “Add to Kaboodle” button on their toolbar when they see a product that interests them. (Retailers can also easily add an “Add to Kaboodle” button to their individual product Web pages.) With a click of the button, a summary of the product is added to the member’s Kaboodle page—including a description, a picture, and pricing information. The member can add comments to the product snapshot, save it in a customized list, and share it with others to invite their input. And because all members’ Kaboodle pages are public, other members can copy information about items they’ve already found onto other members’ pages to help them in their shopping research.
In addition to the advantages that Kaboodle offers to shoppers, the site offers two compelling benefits for retailers. First, customers simply need to review their personal Kaboodle pages to remember what they wanted to buy from the retailer. Second, when Kaboodle members add the retailer’s product to their list, others can discover that item and add it to their lists.63
In just two short years, Chandra and his team created a highly successful Web site—so successful, in fact, that Hearst Corporation purchased it in August 2007 for about $40 million. It is now part of Hearst Magazines Digital Media, which manages 24 Web sites and nine mobile sites.64 At the time of its purchase, Kaboodle had about 2 million unique monthly visitors.65 By the end of 2008, the number of unique monthly visitors had exploded to nearly 10 million.66


Questions to Answer:

  1. Register as a new user at Kaboodle (it’s free) and experiment with the social shopping Web site. Briefly summarize how easy or difficult it was to join, discover products you were interested in, create a list, use the “Add to Kaboodle” button, and look at similar lists created by other members.
-       The user interface was good enough for users to understand the system. However, there was some issue on connectivity to internet. It cannot connect to server. Base on some google search of their products, their home products are good enough base on aesthetics.
  1. Based on your experience, what recommendations for improvements or new features do you have?
-       Based on my own experience, they should regularly update their own product if it is still available and if there are new products. They should also include user rating from previous buyers. I also think that they should upgrade their system regularly to keep up with the current technology.
  1. Would you expect the number of members in social shopping Web sites to continue to grow over the next few years? Why or why not?
-       Yes, because the world right now depends so much with the internet nowadays. Most of my friends and colleagues almost use online shopping sites to purchase their own wants and needs. With the current trend, the number of people using the online shopping websites will continue to grow over the years.
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