There was a really interesting study last year by BabyCenter, an online community for expectant and new moms. The study called “21st Century Mom” found that new mothers gravitate to social media sites after having a child.

How moms are using the Internet and social media today:

• Social Mom: Social Media is Mass Media for Moms. The number of moms who use social media regularly has significantly increased from 11% to 63% since 2006. Forty-four percent use social media for word-of-mouth recommendations on brands and products and 73% feel they find trustworthy information about products and services through online communities focused on their specific interests such as parenting.
• Gadget Mom: The 21st Century Mom™ is not intimidated by technology. Moms are using PDA technology to manage the hectic family schedule, digital cameras to share family life and gaming consoles to connect with their children. The vast majority of moms (91%) never leave the house without their cell phones and compared to just three years ago, are 348% more likely to use her cell phone to go online. They are considered the Chief Memory Officer in the family and over half (55%) have replaced the traditional family photo album with an online version.
• Mealtime Mom: Family dinner time is a priority for today’s moms. Ninety percent of moms say they eat dinner as a family several times a week. The Internet has become moms #1 source (77%) for recipes, higher even than cookbooks (36%).
• Dr. Mom: The 21st Century Mom™ is AAD (Almost a Doctor). Today’s mom has become the key decision maker in the health and well-being of her family. She comes to appointments armed with information and actively seeks second opinions online. She consistently taps into both expert and mom-to-mom wisdom using the Internet and social media. In online communities, children’s health issues are the leading topic of interest in online communities (91%) followed by childhood development tips (79%) and product reviews (72%).

A couple of the stats jumped out at me. I am amazed that 55% of mom’s surveyed have replaced the  traditional family photo album with an online version.  I am not too surprised that more than twice as many mom’s use the Internet to search for recipes instead if using cookbooks. That mom’s use online communities for information on their children’s health is not a surprise. That 91% of them use them, is a much higher percentage than I expected.

Interesting data in the ForeSee Results 2010 Social Media Report. Some of the key findings in the study, which looked at nearly 10,000 visitors to the biggest e-retail websites in the United States, include:

• 56% of shoppers to top e-retail websites who interact with social media websites have elected to “friend” or “follow” or “subscribe” to a retailer on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. This is an amazing testament to customer loyalty and interest in social engagement. Shoppers are actually choosing to engage in relationships with retailers on social sites.
• Facebook is, by far, the best place to reach shoppers. More than half of everyone who shops online uses Facebook, and of those online shoppers who engage in social media, more than 80% use Facebook. However, an unofficial look at the Facebook pages of the Top 100 online retailers reveals that one-quarter do not have any formal Facebook presence. In other words, half of the top online retailers have a minimal to nonexistent Facebook presence.
• Customers mainly interact with retailers on social media sites in order to learn about products and promotions—only 5% use social media primarily for customer support—a marketer’s dream come true. Consumers want companies’ information, sales and specials; retailers just have to learn how to give it to them effectively.

Facebook Impact

In terms of pure usage, more than half of all online shoppers frequent Facebook. Facebook’s dominance is even more apparent when you look just at shoppers who visit social sites regularly. Among online shoppers who engage in social media, more than 80% are using Facebook.

Give the People What They Want

49% of respondents who “friend” or “follow” companies through social media do so to learn about special deals and options. Close behind, 45% of users do it to learn about products. Only 5% use social media primarily for customer support. This should be exactly what marketers want to hear: they want our information, sales, and specials.

Actionable Items

If you are an online retailer and you don’t have a Facebook page then get one! Make sure you have someone to monitor it and post good, timely information. Promote it to your most loyal customers through your regular communications venues (emails, ads, stores, coupons, etc.). Use your Facebook page to post promotions and product information.

It’s been a while since a story about social retailing has caught my eye. So I was interested to read an article on Adage titled “Online Shopping Goes From Solo Experience to Social Interaction“.

For those of you not familiar with the concept of social retailing, first a little background information. The consensus in the retailing world is that off-line shopping is a collaborative experience while shopping online is a solo endeavor, devoid of the interaction many consumers seek. You don’t get a group of people huddled around a computer monitor discussing whether an outfit would look good on someone.

Retailers believe that making the online shopping experience more social will increase online sales. With that goal in mind, Adage reported on two technologies that are being rolled out to big-name retailers, including Vans, Lucky Brand Jeans and Warner Entertainment. These technologies are called friend-based merchandising that involves Facebook and collaborative shopping .

The collaborative-shopping technology, which is now live at Vans.com allows consumers who are building custom shoes on the site to chat with friends in real time about the product design. The customer clicks on a link saying, “Invite friends to design with you,” giving them the ability to access friends through AIM, e-mail or any other service a link can be sent through. Assuming the friend is also at a computer, she can join a chat on the Vans site to give a thumbs up or down on the design, as well as make her own suggestions.

“Facebook has chat integrated, so chatting within a page is now something people are comfortable with,” Andy Lloyd, CEO of Fluid said. “The ability to elicit someone’s opinion at the point of decision is an important thing.”

In the week that the collaborative shopping technology has been live, Katie Bongiovanni, Vans’ director of e-commerce, reports sales and traffic are up.

“It’s preliminary, but the customers who have talked to us about it have been really happy with it,” she said. “This is really how our consumer lives online right now. The collaborative part of it is resonating.”

The second piece of technology, friend-based merchandising, is now live at Jansport.com. When shoppers are viewing a product, they are given the option to “Share on Facebook” by adding the “My Favorite Jansport” application. Once the shopper has added the application, she can invite friends to comment on and rate Jansport products. As the application gains steam, customers will be able to view comments and favorites from their friends. The technology does not use Facebook Connect yet, but will in the future.

David Polinchok, chairman of Brand Experience Lab, said this type of interactivity could mean fewer abandoned shopping carts.

“You get more people to make decisions on the spot,” he said. “Right now, either you can chat with the retailer or save something [to look at later]. I’ve got a wish list at Amazon.com, but I probably haven’t been to it in a year.”

What do you think about social retailing? Will you use either the friend-based merchandising that involves Facebook or the collaborative shopping technologies?

We have written many articles on social retailing and how the social networks are changing how we make a purchase decision.

If you are a retailer the first step is to make yourself visible on the social networks. eMarketer reported that an August 2008 survey of Web merchants sponsored by Internet Retailer found that, of the 39.3% of retail respondents that use social networks, 32% have a page on Facebook, 27% on MySpace and 26% on YouTube.

At first glance these numbers look impressive, but the flip side is that 60% of retailers surveyed do not have a presence on a social networks. These ratilers are missing out on huge segments of the population. For example some 85% of Generation Y (those born after 1979) respondents to a PriceGrabber survey said they participated in social networking, and 57% reported involvement with blogs.

If you are a retailer that does not have a blog or a presence on a social network, it is going to become increasingly difficult to reach shoopers online like Gen Y members.

Bin Ends located just down the road in Braintree, Massachusetts is a discount online wine and spirits retailer who has started to stream live online videos of wine tastings with pros that consumers can view via the Twitter social network

To watch a live tasting all you need to is create a profile on Twitter, then receive notifications of upcoming events via the social network. The wine tastings also are promoted on the retailer’s web site and through social networking site Facebook.

When the wine tastings are happening, you can log into Twitter to view the broadcast of a panel discussing selected wines. Viewers can ask questions or offer comments online during the live broadcasts. The tastings are promoted at least two weeks in advance so that consumers also can order featured wines from Binendswine.com and taste along with the experts, Bin Ends says.

The first online tasting, held last week, drew 200 viewers from around the globe. About 10% of them ordered the promoted wines in advance from the company’s web site, according to a company spokesman. Shoppers who live in states that don’t permit direct shipment of alcohol to consumers can use the site’s “virtual sommelier,” which directs them to in-state retail locations where they can purchase the wine. That way no one has to miss out on a tasting, the spokesman says.

This is a great example of a small company using social networking to expand their market reach. Instead of just targeting wine drinkers in the greater Boston area, Bin Ends is able to reach potential wine buyers worldwide. They joined Facebook and Twitter and then thought outside the box on how to stand out in these social networks. A virtual taste test is very creative and I am sure that the 200 viewers was several times more than what they would have expected for an in-store event.

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.

Facebook users get a 10% commission for every product they sell (deposited in personal PayPal accounts), bSocial Networks gets a 35% to 50% commission, and retailers get an outlet to sell products to the 50 million consumers on Facebook without having to advertise, says Sue Spielman, bSocial Networks co-founder.

“This is a consumer-to-consumer business platform that lets anyone in the social network create a personalized marketplace that reflects their hobbies and interests,” Spielman says. “And when social networkers share their Market Lodge, they share with all of their friends in a setting of social trust, a social bond.”

BSocial Networks plans to expand its initial offering of 1,100 products to thousands of products. Current retailers include Aurora Nova Skin Care, Holistic Pet, Inner Waves Organics, Oona Sara Designs and White Swan. The company also plans to expand its Market Lodge offering, initially created using the Facebook application program interface, to other social networks.

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.

This was a good size study as Coremetrics used the CompU.S.A website, which features SellPoint APT. study was conducted over 30 days and examined more than a million shopping sessions. Products measured included those from Canon, Panasonic and Epson.

This study is a continuation of the evolution that is underway in social retailing. Shopping by nature is a social event and in 2007 retailers have been trying to make online shopping more social and community driven. From the shopping site Kaboodle to Bloomingdale’s and Roots social retailing efforts, savvy retailers have been reinventing the way we shop online.

Previous studies had show that user-generated product reviews increase sales. Now we see that adding another social media tactic like video tours can all increase sales.

Some of you might be wondering why video tours are a social media tactic. The reason is portability. Now that the product tour is a video file it can be shared, distributed via email, message boardsa, community groups or mobile phones. No longer do user have to come to your web site to see or read about your product. Now Canon, Panasonic and Epson can go out and interact with anyone online who is interested in their product, regardless of where or how they are connected to the Internet.

That is the power of video tours. This study from Coremetrics is just the first step. Look for product video tours to explode in 2008 as more and more retailers move away from a static image and a few lines of text to describe a product.

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.

Wine.com builds on social shopping with new community site:
Building on its premise that the more consumers know about wine the better, Wine.com has launched a community site designed to generate traffic as wine enthusiasts share information on their personal preferences. “The web is going social, and wine is a social category, so if you’re Wine.com you better have social community features,” says CEO Rich Bergsund.

I almost fell off my seat when I read this additional quote by the Wine.com CEO. “We’ll see how people use the community,” Bergsund says. “We don’t even know yet what the opportunities are. It’s possible we could even offer commissions on community-driven sales.” SO basically he is saying that we have no idea what we are doing with social networking, but we will try a lot of things and hope that something works. Senior management at its finest!

Wal-Mart ads reviews to web site:
The retailer added customer reviews in July, and it now is reporting that 80,000 reviews have been posted to date, with shoppers adding about 1,000 reviews every day. Reviews are lifting conversion on highly rated products and giving customers another reason to visit, the e-retailer says. A one-star review depresses sales, but that’s fine with CEO Raul Vasquez , who says negative reviews that prevent a sale also prevent a bad experience with the Wal-Mart brand and reduce product returns.

Love this quote: Walmart.com is out to be “the most visited, most valued online retail site,” says Vasquez.

I have to give Wal-Mart credit for its social media persistence. The Intenrte is full of stories about Wal-Mart’s missteps in social media, but they appear to be committed to making it work for their brand and they are to be applauded for that.

CircuitCity.com unveils social networking destination:
CircuitCity.com has launched CityCenter Community, a social networking online gathering place for shoppers and sales associates. The community creates a social shopping scene that brings customers together and via interaction with merchant staff recreates one aspect of an in-store experience.

Circuit City wants to empower consumers with innovative approaches to shopping,” says Mark Oldani, vice president and general manager of Circuit City Direct. The company has over the years incorporated other customer-centric features such as customer reviews and discussion forums, the new CityCenter Community adds blogs, personal profiles and photo galleries to the e-commerce site’s growing online community, Oldani adds.

Buying electronics can be intimidating for many consumers. If Circuit City can successfully build an online community with product reviews and forums that embrace the technological challenged, they will have a great opportunity to grab market share away from their rivals like Best Buy.

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:

“We weren’t looking to solve a problem, we were looking to move in on an opportunity,” Glass said. “We had a lot of people that were passionate about new fragrances. They were asking one another if they liked it or not. They already had their own channels and we wanted to harness that and put it where the products are sold.”

In June Bath & Body Works launched a new flip-flop style footwear product called FitFlop. This new product presented Shannon with an opportunity to install the Bazaarvoice ratings and reviews system. Thus customers could share feedback, experiences, and recommendations on this new product line.

The results were outstanding. Bath & Body found that the FitFlop campaign achieved 10% higher conversion and 12% higher sales per visitor as compared to campaigns that did not include customer ratings and reviews.

“We were very pleased with the results,” said Glass. “To introduce a high-price product without a commercial enticement to it… the marketing push being the great reviews that we were sharing, the results were quite impressive.”

In addition to the increased sales, Bath & Body has been able to identify some “super-reviewers”. A super-reviewer is someone who has posted in excess of 100 separate messages on the site. These super-reviewers are great brand advocates and Bath and Body plans to tap into this strong customer base in 2008 by include these “brand advocates” in future advertising campaigns

“In 2008 we’re looking to see how we can work with them to leverage them on the Web site,” she said. “We do have a core set of people that are submitting over 100 reviews, both good and bad. This is something that we’re putting on our roadmap, about how to leverage those prolific reviewers.”

I really like the approach that Bath & Body took. By limiting the original product reviews to one campaign, it made the campaign much more manageable. Also, by understanding the importance on these brand advocates and including them in future online marketing plans, they are strengthening the bond between the brand and its users even further.

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.

BodySpace is a place where users can post photos of themselves; describe their workout goals and blog about their progress. Sine its launch the site has added about 117,000 active users. In addition to BodySpace, Bodybuilding.com offers 20,000 pages of content from experts and consumers, an online forum where more than 800,000 fitness buffs have posted 19 million messages over the past five years (making it the 34th biggest online forum on the web as measured by forum tracker Big Boards), 24 educational online video series, and functionality that enables a user to create his own blog.

In an interview in Internet Retailer, Ryan DeLuca, CEO spoke about the positive results that BodySpace has generated:

“There is no doubt our community and social networking offerings are making a big difference for sales and conversion. Since we added BodySpace, our average order size is up nearly $10 to $92.41, and our conversion rate is 8%, up from 7% a year ago. That one percentage point is huge.”

Because of the success of BodySpace DeLuca is projecting $90 million in sales this year and $122 million next year. There sales in 2006 were $65 million.

“We are building something that is not just based on making money,” he adds. “Everything we add to our site is based on helping visitors reach their goals. Helping our visitors stick to their programs and reach their goals will ultimately lead to much higher revenue, a much more valuable brand based on emotional connections, and more profitability based on increased customer loyalty.”

BodySpace is one the more tangible examples that I have found where a company has been able to show that adding as social network has generated a measurable increase in brand awareness, traffic and sales. That they are expecting to almost double sales in 2 years largely because of the success of their social network is a testament to the power of social networking.