An e-commerce announcement from DEMO Fall 2010—Select2gether is launching live, interactive online shopping on its site. The fashion portal lets you share items and outfits you’re considering with friends and other users, gaining valuable feedback from its forums. Adding a real-time element, Select2gether hopes to take its shopping tool to the next level.

The real-time effects come by way of a virtual fitting room widget, where users can save images and information about items, including their brand name, price, website and description. From there, participants can share their thoughts and comments, making for a passive mechanism for shopping with friends.

The social aspects of Select2gether have always been central to the site, and that sense of community has served the company well in its years since launch. Replicating an offline experience in the online realm is a tricky task, and particularly so for fashion. But Select2gether argues that its live feedback system improves shopping for users and retailers alike.

Having a real-time feedback system reduces the rate of return for an item purchased through an online retailer, and provides a reciprocal of market research that brands can utilize for online and offline branding. These widgets are akin to online focus groups, which is a concept retailers have been eagerly latching onto with recent e-commerce developments.

Demand around e-commerce has taken a positive turn with services like Groupon and Gilt driving activity and social connectivity. Live events in general have been enabled through open networks, increased access, mobile devices and improved security for shoppers. Finding a way to apply this to the fashion industry has been a lofty goal for countless startups in the past few years.

Select2gether has its large, long-standing member base to thank, as the site has been able to gain traction and a number of key partnerships. This has provided the revenue and proof needed for the site to grow to the point of supporting useful real-time tools. The search and recommendation potential behind a tool like this can really set the stage for retailers seeking ways to tap into their target audiences.

While Select2gether is taking the real-time leap with certain caution, avoiding the hype around mobile and other features just for the sake of joining the bandwagon, the company can continue to focus on its community. Others in the space, such as Polyvore, have similar goals around their user bases, building powerful search and advertising platforms that brands will be anxious to grab hold of once they’ve realized their potential.