ToldYa introduced the concept of “social selling” by launching the first embeddable, portable online store for the social networking world. Based on the company’s proven technology – already in use by 40 of the world’s Top 100 e-commerce providers, including Buy.com, Foot Locker and Tiger Direct – the ToldYa eStore empowers any consumer or business to safely sell their new or used products on leading social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, blogs or their own web site.

Users instantly build a free store that can feature rich media like videos and product images – and publish it via a widget in as many places as they’d like, including eBay, which now allows users to publish widgets to their eBay stores. ToldYa handles credit card payment processing and helps to automate the shipping process, charging the seller a 99 cent transaction fee when their product is sold.

“Social commerce” is a recent trend which capitalizes on consumers’ willingness to share product and buying recommendations with their friends. ToldYa takes the concept to the next level by introducing “social selling” through the ToldYa eStore, where the consumer can open their own store on each of their favorite social networking sites, allowing them to easily sell to their friends and networks.

“Let’s face it, everyone has something to sell or knows someone who is selling something, and with ‘social selling,’ anyone can do it quickly and easily.” said Michael Birnholz, chief executive officer and founder of ToldYa.

The leading consumer e-commerce marketplaces – eBay, Amazon and Craigslist—have yet to truly adapt their offerings for Web 2.0. These sites don’t allow users to easily share listings on social media sites, other than posting affiliate links that market products from other sellers. Additionally, any purchase made must be checked out at the e-commerce marketplace – so even if you could figure out how to post a link on your Facebook profile to a bicycle you’re selling on eBay, your friends will have to leave Facebook and checkout at eBay. Other companies that offer commerce enabled widgets require sellers to have merchant accounts, something that consumers simply do not have.

Features and Benefits of the ToldYa eStore

• The ToldYa eStore is a 3″x4″ mini store that can be embedded and posted anywhere a consumer can publish content—social networking sites, blogs or Web sites. eBay also now allows users to publish widgets to their eBay stores.
• Listing a product to sell is extremely easy, with re-usable pictures and descriptions available from an extensive online product catalog of virtually any product found online.
• Consumers can personalize their storefront with images and text or even a video found on a popular video site.
• Buyers shop and browse, checkout, select shipping method and even pay for their item right inside the embedded eStore, without ever having to leave the page to go to a third-party web site or service such as PayPal.
• ToldYa eStores can accept cash or credit—sellers don’t need to worry about processing credit cards themselves. ToldYa handles all aspects of the payment process and even integrates tracking of shipments of the items being sold.
• With ToldYa brokering every credit card transaction, both buyers and sellers are represented equally which guarantees mutual satisfaction.
• All the necessary tools for order tracking, processing, and reconciliation are available to the seller in their ToldYa account.
• All ToldYa sellers get their own page at ToldYa making it easy to email friends a link to your store—even those who may not have a social networking profile.
• Through the “My Network” feature each seller who refers a friend, earns a $1 each time their friend joins and opens a store. Furthermore, when that same friend sells an item, the referrer gets 25 percent of the listing fee, every time, always.

Buy.com is one of the major e-commerce providers that has used ToldYa’s embedded store technology. “My custom-branded, video- enabled ToldYa shopping store generated over 3 million impressions and thousands of visits to Buy.com last year alone,” said Melissa Salas, director of marketing for Buy.com.