Picklify: beta site attempts to personalize online shopping experience with social tie-in

Jason Sherman thinks shopping online shouldn’t have to mean buying from a faceless seller called “alwayslowprices82” or “funtechshop” on ecommerce sites like eBay.

On his new social commerce site Picklify, he wants to make online shopping a little more personal, and a little less shady.

Here’s the idea: Sign up on Picklify and you can shop around and mingle with sellers. Chat with them. Add them as friends. Sell your own stuff, without having to give Picklify a cut. Sherman hopes users will sign in with Facebook or Twitter so they can see sellers’ profiles and feel more comfortable buying from them. Sherman also says he hopes to add a way to advertise and sell services, like guitar lessons or computer repair.

The site banks on the hope that people will want to know more about who they’re buying a used iPhone from. Its usefulness also depends on people linking their profiles to their other social media pages, as the site’s initial “user profile” doesn’t allow for any personal information.

Picklify, based in the Northeast’s Mayfair where Sherman lives, entered beta testing this week. It’s the first venture from Phuture Concepts, Sherman’s company with business partner Devon Logan.

Sherman graduated from Delaware Valley College, with a degree in computer information systems management. He actually used to be one of those faceless sellers as “stuffsold76” with his eBay franchise, which he says he recently sold to focus on Picklify, though he does still sell as “stuffsold2000.” His last venture, GuGo, attempted to combine social networking and discounts and deals. Sherman says he could not find funding for it.

Sherman also has what one might describe as ‘wide-ranging’ experience in every creative endeavor imaginable:

• He’s a techno DJ known as Jason Staccato.
• He’s a documentary filmmaker.
• He’s a published author of a book that, according to its Amazon page, is about “multiple universes, the secret of the Earth’s origin, extraterrestrial races, government agencies, college students, computer and video game junkies, advanced weaponry, breakthrough technologies, incredible vehicles, mind-boggling mental abilities, action-packed chase sequences, side-splitting comedy, passionate romance, nerve-racking suspense and the most astonishing plot beyond anything in your wildest imagination…”
• He even calls himself a chef; he invented Chick’n Bits [Updated: link now broken, Sherman said he took the site down because it was very old and it wasn’t “supposed to be visible”], the chicken lover’s answer to Bacon Bits.