Keepio Offers Pure Social Commerce Play

So I’ve started working a bit with the folks at Keepio, a new social commerce offering that allows you to inventory items you own (think collectors) and share them with a trusted network of friends. But it also allows you to sell them, trade them or even have a platform to let your friends see what you might have they can borrow (think lawn equipment). Because it’s not just an eBay (all about selling) and the premise is to connect and do this with your trusted network of friend (not with anyone like Craig’s List), I think Keepio might be the first pure social commerce play in the space.

I spent some time last weekend using their handy “email a photo” feature to snap pictures of some sports collectibles I have. It was super easy to load items into your collections. You can set up different collections to organize your DVDs separately from your baseball cards or romance novels or gadgets. I’ve even sold my old iPhone 3G using Keepio because you can place an item on the “Marketplace” and make it public for anyone to see.

Perhaps the coolest thing about Keepio is they don’t take a transaction fee if you buy through their site. They think of themselves as just the meeting place, not the store. Their plan is to generate revenue with relevant, targeted offers to users. So, if you buy a big screen TV and put that in your collection, they might deliver an advertisement to you for a service plan or warranty. They also offer white-label versions so insurance companies, churches, etc., can build inventory and trusted community ecosystems for their customers or members.

You can read more of my exploration of Keepio on a guest post I wrote for InsiderLouisville.com here.

Instead of pounding out more description, I thought it might be useful to just show you what it looks like.

Keepio is a Louisville-based startup run by my friend Dave Durand, Jesse Lucas, Jon Shaw and my business partner in Exploring Social Media, Nick Huhn. I’m not hiding the fact I’m biased here, but would love your take on Keepio. The reason I’ve signed on to work with them on some marketing and public relations is because I believe it is pure social commerce – that with your trusted networks. It’s not just adding a store to a Facebook page.

But hold me to task on this, gang. What do you think of Keepio? Is it a niche site for collectors or something bigger than can bring social commerce to life for average folks. The comments are yours.

Related articles

• Interview: Keepio Redefines the Selling of Stuff (businesspundit.com)
• Keepio takes a fresh, social approach to selling your stuff [TNW Social Media] (thenextweb.com)