Since ST701 Spree opened for business at http://shops.st701.com/spree on 18 April, it has set many a shopping queen's heart aflutter and her fingers all a clicking, resulting in a better than expected response.

ST701 Spree is a collaboration between ST701 and comGateway, a spree service provider that has the full suite of online shopping services. Currently, the site features about 600 American online merchants.

Saving on shipping costs

In an online spree, a group of online shoppers band together informally to form a spree group to combine their purchases from an overseas merchant and share the handling fee and shipping costs in order to lower the per unit cost of the goods. These groups are co-ordinated by ad hoc leaders who collect the money, place orders and distribute the items to the members when they arrive.

By partnering comGateway, ST701 allows spree shoppers to get round problems such as the majority of US merchants accepting only US-issued credit cards and shipping within the US.

The tie-up also adds legitimacy and security to the entire spree process. Shoppers no longer need to give sensitive personal information to an unknown individual or worry that an unscrupulous spree leader absconds with the money or goods. ST701 Spree shoppers can have their goods delivered right to their doorstep.

Happy spree-ers

ST701 Spree has certainly made its mark among bloggers who are keen spree-ers. Their feedback and comments posted on blogs indicate that they welcome this service with open arms and open wallets.

"As I organise sprees quite often on livejournal, I find ST701 Spree much more efficient as there is no need for approval to start a spree from the forum moderators. Now I can always spree for sales item without having to worry that the sale may be over by the time the moderators give the approval. My spree box closed within one day when I posted up my Old Navy sale spree." Serene, 22, NUS

"One of my colleagues joined ST701 Spree which enables you to buy from David And Goliath Tees. Basically you don't have to shop from the site itself since like most US sites only ships within the USA. This site actually solves your problems because when you order through them, they take care of the shopping from the US to Singapore." Rachel

"Sprees are the reasons why I'm always tempted and broke - there're tonnes of sprees out there, but I'm very excited to know about ST701 site - it sounds more legit since there have been cases of fraud before." Therascals

"This idea is amazing! I used to wait for livejournal sprees which were really unpredictable and had limited quotas. But with ST701 Spree, I can spree any time of the day and buy as much as I want." Dawn Tan