Would You Tweet Your Credit Card Purchases? Now You Can
You already share your mood status and your thoughts on current events on sites such as Twitter and Facebook, so why not share your latest credit card purchases, too? That’s what Blippy.com is helping people do. The service offers a real-time snapshot of what people are buying, where they’re buying from, and how much they’re spending.
Shoppers can now link their credit and debit card accounts to their Blippy.com account. The site automatically updates each time a purchase is made from online merchants including Blockbuster, Netflix, Amazon.com and the iTunes store. Blippy.com has tracked more than $4.5 million dollars in transactions to date and reports that the average purchase amount of its 5,000 users is just over $40 per purchase.
Blippy describes itself as a “fun and easy way to see and discuss the things people are buying.” There are currently 16 stores listed on the site but users are encouraged to recommend a store they don’t see on the list.
Yet why would people want to share what they’re buying at any given moment? One benefit of joining Blippy is that the public time line of posts will give friends and followers a chance to see what the current price is for certain products from their favorite merchants. Blippy users can essentially compare purchasing notes with the world, and perhaps make more informed decisions about their next purchase.
People can also connect with other savvy shoppers with similar interests. Users sign into the service using their Facebook or Twitter accounts and handles, can leave comments on other users’ purchases, and they can indicate whether they “like” a certain buyer’s activity. Blippy is a live, interactive display of buyer habits across some of the most popular Web merchants, and ultimately creates an online shopping community with very specific price information.
Blippy assures users that all consumer credit card information and identifying information is confidential and takes security measures to make sure account information doesn’t enter the community in any way. As the site moves out of beta testing, more people will be able to participate in this emerging community to post their thoughts about friends’ purchases and send out updates about their own.
