Archive for the ‘Social Retailing’ Category
Selling to your friends on Facebook
Internet Retailer reports that shoppers with Facebook pages will no longer be restricted to only evangelizing about the latest products and talking trends with friends. Now they will be able to sell directly from their Facebook page.
BSocial Networks Inc. has launched a Facebook application called Market Lodge that allows Facebook users to create miniature e-commerce stores on their Facebook pages. Market Lodge allows Facebook users to select from 1,100 products from 50 retailers items to sell in their own shops.
Filed under Social Media Optimization, Social Retailing : Comments (1) : Mar 22nd, 2008
Video Tours Increase Sales
It has been well documented that user-generated reviews (a social media tactic) can and will increase sales. Well now a SellPoint study conducted by Coremetrics found a significant increase in product purchases after online shoppers viewed audio/video tours of products.
The numbers from the study we really extraordinary:
- There was a 35 percent increase in the sales conversion rate among shoppers who viewed the tours vs. those who did not.
- Shoppers viewing the product tours spent more than 2.5 minutes, on average, engaged in viewing detailed product information about each product viewed.
Filed under Brand Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization, Social Retailing : Comments (6) : Dec 3rd, 2007
Social Retailing News
With the passing on Cyber Monday online retailers are in the home stretch for the holiday season. At this time of year there is always a flurry of news stories and these were a few that caught my eye via Internet Retailer:
Patagonia.com adds social tools to build brand and sales:
Patagonia.com started a blog earlier this year, called The Cleanest Line. The unedited blog is accessible on the site’s home page and provides a forum for discussing the company’s products, outdoor activities and environmental issues. I am not sure what an unedited blog is, but after the success that Roots Canada has had with its blog, it is not surprise that Patagonia has jumped into the field.
Filed under Social Media Optimization, Social Retailing : Comments (7) : Nov 29th, 2007
A Successful Social Marketing Campaign
An interesting article on Clickz showed that Bath & Body increased sales by 10-12% after implementing customer feedbacks and reviews on their site.
Bath & Body Works specializes in fragrant beauty products for bath and body care, facial skincare, hair care and spa items. The company has an active customer base who is enthused about their products. The challenge was to convert this offline enthusiasm into something tangible online. Shannon Glass director of Internet operations put the challenge this way:
Filed under Brand Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization, Social Retailing : Comments (4) : Nov 27th, 2007
Social Network Drives Sales at BodySpace
While some e-retailers are still figuring out what social networking is, and whether they want to be involved, Bodybuilding.com did not take a wait-and-see approach to social networking. A year ago it created its own social network called BodySpace, and the result has been an increase in brand awareness, traffic and sales.
Filed under Brand Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization, Social Retailing : Comments (1) : Nov 15th, 2007
Amazon Adds Video Customer Product Reviews
With customer reviews being the next big thing in online retailing, I was not surprised to read that Jeff Bozos and Amazon (which pioneered the user-generated customer review) has launched something called video reviews. Now Amazon users can use video to share their opinions and demonstrate the use of products on the site. Customer-generated video reviews are located within the customer reviews section of items in the Amazon.com catalog.
“We are dedicated to offering our customers an information-rich shopping experience so they can know which products are right for them,” says Colin Bodell, vice president, Amazon.com. “The chance to see product demonstrations as submitted by fellow customers is just the latest benefit to shopping on Amazon”.
Filed under Brand Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization, Social Retailing : Comments (1) : Nov 14th, 2007
Are You A Social Researcher?
We have written a lot about how customer reviews have and will increase sales. So I was interested to read in Internet Retailer about a new shopping study from The E-Tailing Group titled “Social Shopping Study 2007” which showed that the growth in online customer reviews has led to a new breed of shopper called the “Social Researcher”. This social researcher is someone who puts significant emphasis on peer feedback in product reviews when making online and offline purchasing decisions.
Filed under Brand Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization, Social Retailing : Comments (0) : Nov 12th, 2007
Facebook’s New Google Killer
According to Advertising Age Facebook is expected to unveil a new social retailing feature today (November 6th). The feature will allow Facebook members to share with people in their network what they bought, where they bought and also information on the product like a discount or coupon. What a Google killer this could be. A recent emarketer study showed that 37% of people in the U.S. use a search engine to find where to buy a product online. Now all they have to do is ask their friend on Facebook!
Filed under Brand Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization, Social Retailing : Comments (2) : Nov 6th, 2007
What Sites Do Social Media Users Frequent?
A new study from comScore shows that heavy users of social networking sites favor leisure-related retail sites. Heavy users of social networking sites are significantly more likely than average to visit leisure-oriented retail site categories, such as music, jewelry/luxury goods/accessories and consumer electronics than the average Internet user.
According to data from Internet Retailer, heavy social networkers accounted for 28.5% of visitors to music sites and 26.5% of visitors to jewelry/luxury goods/accessories sites. In addition, they represented nearly one-quarter of visitors to apparel sites (24.8%), tickets sites (24.5%), consumer electronics sites (23.9%), sports/outdoor sites (23.8%), computer software sites (23.7%), book sites (23.6%), movie sites (23.4%) and computer hardware sites (22.7%).
Filed under Brand Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization, Social Retailing : Comments (7) : Oct 31st, 2007
Consumers Trust Online Reviews
Following up on yesterdays post about how Customer Reviews Becoming More Important, it appears that consumer product reviews are also credible, at least according to a Deloitte Consumer Product Group-sponsored study.
“Some online retailers are reporting higher sales conversion rates as a result of allowing customers to post product reviews on their Web sites,” said Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer.
Filed under Brand Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization, Social Retailing : Comments (3) : Oct 19th, 2007
