Hautelook, the flash sale site for high fashion and luxury items at a discounted price, was recently bought by Nordstrom, a company that clearly believes in the power of Hautelook’s online brand.

Hautelook recently won an eTail Best-in-Class award for its social media program, which included an “in-Facebook” sale where customers could buy products within the company’s Facebook page that they couldn’t buy elsewhere.

Why did Bettinelli and the company want to take this risk? Simple. In the ever-changing world of e-commerce, you sometimes want to be fast, first and different.

While he acknowledged there is a saturation of flash sale sites in the market, Bettinelli also noted that for such a small market share of ecommerce (only about two percent of total online transactions), flash sale sites get a LOT of attention. The total for 2012 flash sale sites is projected at $3 billion – still small but noticeable indeed, and evidence that consumers are asking for this sales avenue.

The in-Facebook event that Hautelook ran didn’t grab as much revenue as a normal sale that Hautelook might run online, but it was significant: nearly $200,000 in sales from the event. At the time, it was one of the highest Facebook sales totals by an online retailer, said Bettinelli.

Listen to Bettinelli speak about the social media program and its successes, as well as what he thinks the next big thing in e-commerce will be. (Hint: he thinks full-priced items will start to take center stage and art and design will be ever more important for websites. Ok, that’s sort of more than a hint…just watch you’ll enjoy!)