'Net Features : social shopping

Online Shopping Gets Collaborative

Michael Garrity — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 18:35:00 GMT

Since the rise of e-commerce, shopping has become more and more of a solo experience over the last couple of years. But the e-commerce technology company BevyUp has been trying to change that, and its announcement of a new cloud-delivered collaborative shopping service moves that goal many steps forward.

This new technology will allow retailers to add real-time and offline collaborative shopping capabilities to their e-commerce stores, meaning two or more people can shop “together” with the addition of co-browsing, communication (via Facebook, text or email invites, text chat and/or video chat) and sentiment tagging collaboration capabilities that ca be added to any only store.

Plus, BevyUp will even offer actionable intelligence on a shopper’s product sentiments and preferences that help retailers convert sales and capture add-on and up-sell opportunities.

By adding a layer of collaborative social functionality to an e-commerce store, retailers will be able to better serve online purchases that require more than one decision maker, such as apparel, travel, bridal, jewelry, real estate and others, when those decision makers are all in different cities, state or even countries.

“Shoppers that want to browse and buy online with their friends and family are currently resorting to tools that were not designed for shopping – like Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, etc. – to try to make multiparty purchasing decisions,” explained BevyUp CEO Mauricio Cuevas. “The BevyUp service provides online marketers a unified platform that enables, captures and monetizes social interactions on their site.”

In addition, BevyUp will also provide “actionable business intelligence on sentiments behind purchase decisions that would otherwise remain locked up on social media sites and in email exchanges and phone conversations.”

Humanizing E-Commerce with a Conversation Engine from Loopit

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 19:15:00 GMT

Social shopping was all the rage several years ago. The digital dream was that like-minded consumers (shoppers) would organize themselves, discover products and shop online together, engaging with each other in the context of the merchant’s brand and exposing its products to an infinitely larger audience in the process.

While it definitely had its appeal for both merchants and consumers, the available technologies were pretty weak at the time and it never really worked as imagined. As a result, the industry somewhat lost their collective interest over time. Or did they? Merchants still want users to have an positive experience and so do shoppers (nothing really new there). But virtual change is afoot - some vendors are actually aiming to relive the social shopping dream (at least in part) by putting a greater emphasis on enabling consumers to engage in conversations more seamlessly.

RedStart Ventures (a venture foundry) last week launched LoopIt, a platform that enables users to poll specific members of their email address book or by posting their queries to Facebook in the hopes that their friends will join the conversation and lead them to better buying decisions. LoopIt essentially hopes to restore the human element to online shopping. Whether users are interested in publicizing their purchase considerations remains the big question.

One of the first retailers to deploy LoopIt is popular high-end fashion rental site Rent the Runway, which now offers the LoopIt conversation button for items available on its site, allowing members to poll their friends or fellow Rent the Runway style enthusiasts.

"LoopIt is the perfect resource for Rent the Runway members who have already organically formed a community that seeks outfit and styling tips from one another," said Jenn Hyman, CEO & Co-Founder of Rent The Runway. "With LoopIt, they will have an extended group of virtual stylists, including their own friends, as well as other fashion-forward members who also love to experiment with designer fashion. As a company that puts customer experience first, it is monumentally important for us to offer our members tools that will help create the most seamless and enjoyable experience possible."

Pinterest is Not Influencing Purchasing Decisions

Allison Howen — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 18:00:00 GMT

It is no secret that Pinterest has taken the Internet by storm, reaching the elevated status of a top 30 site according to Hitwise. A new study, however, reveals that the social sharing site is not actually influencing consumer purchasing decisions - at leaset not directly.

The study from Prosper Mobile Insights shows that only 13 percent of survey respondents either somewhat or strongly agree that Pinterest influences their purchasing decisions.

And although the social pin board site has gained a lot of traffic in a short period of time, receiving an average of 89 minutes of time spent on site per visitor in January alone according to comScore, it is not enough to catapult Pinterest into a top player in the mobile social shopping arena.

In fact, social shopping in general on mobile hasn’t fully taken off. According to the study, approximately 85 percent of respondents claim to look up product information on their smartphones and tablets; however only 4.7 percent of these people first visit a social media site for this information. Most respondents (43.7%) use general Internet search when browsing product information on their mobile device.

“Although social shopping is not yet prominent, mobile shopping is,” says Pam Goodfellow, Consumer Insights Director at BIGinsight. “General Internet searches, visiting retailer websites, and using apps to compare prices on the fly are the new norm for mobile-savvy shoppers.”

Perhaps the new iPad app and redesigned profiles that Pinterest is reportedly planning to release will spike consumer’s interest in browsing pinboards for product purchases. However, retailers and website owners can view all images that others have pinned from their website by adding their website's URL (sans the http://www.) into the second half of the Pinterest source URL. For example: http://pinterest.com/source/websitemagazine.com.

Game On, Groupon. LivingSocial Makes a Splash

Mike Phillips — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 14:13:00 GMT

UPDATE: Looks like Google is about to get in on the game, too. This fact sheet uncovers Google Offers. That didn't take long, after Groupon famously rebuffed Google's $6 billion buyout offer.

In one swift motion, LivingSocial emerged this week as Groupon’s most serious competitor. On Wednesday morning, January 19, LivingSocial offered a $20 Amazon.com gift card for $10. And by that same evening, 1,000,000 had been sold – at a rate of 85 per second. That’s faster than any of Groupon’s deals including The Gap, which sold about 10 per second.

Of course, Amazon invested $175 million in LivingSocial in December 2010. It makes sense, then, that LivingSocial’s coming out party was hosted by Amazon. It’s particularly interesting that the first big deal from the newcomer is an online deal. While LivingSocial also offers localized, brick-and-mortar deals, the Amazon coupon has done enough to claim some online-only mindshare with consumers and advertisers. Groupon, on the other hand, has branded itself as a local deal site.

LivingSocial might have delivered a very public uppercut to Groupon but they are hardly the only ones looking for a piece of the group-sourced pie. Yelp.com recently started offering daily deals, YouSwoop and Woot.com have been around a while, Restaurant.com is in the mix, Tippr.com is new but gaining momentum and Facebook has been very quiet about their daily deal offerings … for now.

Your move, Groupon.

Mom Shoppers Use Social Media for Purchasing Decisions

Mike Phillips — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 20:35:00 GMT

A recent report from NPD Group, a market research firm, found that mom shoppers are using social media friends and followers to help with their buying decisions. The study finds that 79 percent of mothers with children younger than 18 are active in social media - an impressive statistic. Of those active in social media, one in four said they purchased items on the recommendation from a Facebook friend, Twitter fan or other social media connection.

"Social media has become an enormous influence on purchasing," said Anita Frazier, analyst for The NPD Group. "But many marketers have yet to fully realize the potential of social media and the power of peer group recommendations."

To Frazier's point, perhaps the reason many marketers "have yet to fully realize the potential of social media" is that the majority of marketers do not yet believe that social media can drive actual purchases. It has been widely written across the Internet that social media is not a place where people make purchases. That might be true, in the literal sense, but at least this study shows that social media can indeed influence a decision greatly and, for all intents and purposes, help click the "buy" button. People have trusted their friends more than corporations for eons. Why would that change online?

Groupon at the Bottom of This Holiday List

E-Commerce Express : feature — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 10:20:00 GMT

A website and application performance monitoring firm tested 11 leading social shopping and daily deals sites for availability and performance during the height of the 2010 holiday shopping season. The companies tested by Watchmouse from November 22 through...(read more)

Hey Google, Groupon is Just Not That Into You

Mike Phillips — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 16:19:00 GMT

Let's put all the Google buyout rumors aside for just a moment and focus on actual Groupon news. Then we'll dig into why Groupon will not be selling to Google.

Groupon is launching two new initiatives and they are nothing short of game-changing for merchants and consumers.

Groupon Stores lets merchants set up virtual storefronts where they can set up deals, activate them at their discretion, send them to Groupon subscribers and get customers to follow their Groupon Stores to receive future news and deals. Groupon, using their personalization technology, will also match up the best deals to the right people and send notices every day. Setting up Groupon Stores is free for merchants.

The Deal Feed is a daily, updated stream of deals personalized to each consumer. Users will see the deal of the day, deals posted by merchants they follow and even deals from those they don't follow - recommended by Groupon "based on what we know about you."

Just over the horizon, Groupon will allow users to connect their Deal Feeds to Facebook - so, friends will see other friends' deals, share them, and so on.

With these new capabilities, Groupon has effectively launched a social shopping network - something many others have tried but failed to do. And Groupon will not fail. They already have the blessing of the world's largest social network in Facebook, and a sizable, dedicated audience of their own. Groupon also has the attention of massive, international retailers such as The Gap and an international audience both through Facebook and of their own doing including, but not limited to buying up overseas Groupon clones.

Now we can go back to the buyout rumors - they are rumors - and quash them. If this rumor of a near $6 billion buyout offer from Google seems desperate, that's because it is. The thing is, Google needs Groupon much more than Groupon needs Google. Facebook will provide a serious boost but, in the end, I'm not sure Groupon needs them either. The tools, the audience - it's all there. Groupon stands to make plenty of money on their own, over the long term. The social atmosphere of today's Web is not going to disappear anytime soon, and consumers will never, ever tire of saving money.

Groupon is just getting started. And Google is on the outside looking in.

5 Social Shopping Backlinks for E-Commerce

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:27:00 GMT

The Easter holiday shopping season is in full swing and it may just be your last chance to make some big sales before the back to school season starts. Many merchants are expecting this to be a rather slow summer shopping season so taking some time now to build a few additional inbound links and position your brand on virtual product shelves across the Web will serve you well in the meantime. Let's let at a few must-have back links for e-commerce stores and how to go about acquiring them.

Before we start I'll go ahead and include the standard disclaimer: the sites listed below present opportunities for you to build back links and nothing more. There will be an investment (at least of your time) so understand that you'll need to build relationships with the users of these sites as you would anywhere else, ensuring message consistency across channels, revisiting frequently to promote competitive positioning and testing product offers to see what works in which community.

Also, even though you are participating in these sites for the purpose of gaining new inbound links (and hopefully sales), keep in mind that you will want to track the upstream traffic, monitor conversations and brand mentions and periodically assess your competition to make sure your e-commerce store is being seen in the best and brightest possible light.

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Kaboodle: Users of this social shopping community (owned by Hearst) are able to find, recommend and share products with others and retailers are able to get exposure with those serious about shopping. The main feature available for retailers looking to get into Kaboodle is the Brand Profiles offering. Users can add products themselves of course but merchants can aggregate products from their main domain, showcase popular products, interact with the Kaboodle community and access activity highlights within the community involving your brand through the use of these profiles. Perhaps the best part of it all is that your site will get a link for all that participation in the Kaboodle community.

Wists: Backed by Gawker Media, Wists is a similar social shopping and recommendation site for power-shoppers but it has far less traffic than Kaboodle. The upside (again) of course is that they will indeed provide a link back to your site but you'll need to do some legwork to get that done. Publishers/merchants can include "add to wishlist" buttons on their site that will automatically extract thumbnail images of catalog items.

StyleHive: Another social shopping/e-commerce bookmarking site worthy of mention is StyleHive. Users of the site (which could include the likes of you) are able to add any product and a link to where users can find it. StyleHive was recently purchased by ThisNext (the two companies rebranded as CurateMedia) another identical service in the social shopping arena.

StyleFeeder: Now a division of Time, Inc., StyleFeeder positions itself as a personal shopping engine and it has long made waves in both the e-commerce and affiliate marketing space. Retailers interested in getting seen on StyleFeeder will need either to submit product data feeds apply to affiliate networks, (GAN, CJ, SAS, etc.) or work with Stylefeeder to receive a custom quote for bulk data uploads or special promotions.

Interactive E-Commerce on Social Networks

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:00:00 GMT

Results from a survey conducted by Harris Interactive and commissioned by e-commerce solution provider Volusion found that consumers are looking to social networks for advice and recommendations on online purchases. How timely considering that Black Friday is just days away!

Among online shoppers, key findings include:

27% said viewing comments on various items for sale would encourage them to shop on social networks
30% said special sales and exclusive products would encourage them to shop on social networks
48% said easy-to-use features as a very important feature for initially attracting them to an online shopping website
92% said brand is at least somewhat important to initially attracting them to an online shopping web site
32% would shop online more if sites were easier to use
24% would shop online more if checkout procedures were easier
50% of correspondents said special online offers would encourage them to shop online more frequently

“Since the birth of e-commerce ten years ago, consumers have come to expect an advanced level of online shopping experience,” said Kevin Sproles, CEO and founder of Volusion. “Beyond easy navigation and check out, consumers want online shopping to be integrated with the way they communicate with their peers, making their preferences and interests known on social networks (such as MySpace and Facebook) and enabling retailers to develop a more intimate relationship with them.”

You may remember that earlier this year Volusion announced its Social Store Builder, allowing online store owners to directly tap the power of social networks. The Volusion solution allows featured products from a merchant stores to be rotated on a social networking page.

Bevy - Social Shopping (Merchandising)

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:00:00 GMT

It seems that every third or fourth post on the weblog recently has something to do with social. Today is no different as Website Magazine staffers are at the Internet Retailer trade show. As you can imagine at an ecommerce convention, it's all about shopping and doing it well. Senior Editor Mike Phillips will be covering and reporting back on the sessions this afternoon and tomorrow, while I will be leading the insider interview charge. First up is Kevin Foreman of recently launched Bevy, a social shopping (dubbed a social fashion discovery service) solution where women "discuss and discover" fashion with friends and other members who share similar characteristics.

As you walk the hall of the IR tradeshow, one thing is clear - social is where it's at. Social merchandising, the integration of social networking and product discovery, is the focus of Bevy and while by all accounts a newborn babe in the world of shopping services (just 10 days old), Bevy is already one of the fastest growing applications on Facebook. The application enables users to discover styles from fellow members based on age, gender and body type. The benefit to retailers is that this social focus offers a direct connection to a quite valuable target market. With brands like Manolo Blahnik, Armani, Tretron and Zac Posen from 29 different retail partners such as Nordstrom, AEO, Areopostale, Guess! and others.

In a world where we all trust our peers more so than advertising and marketing, reccomendations (that seems to be a key theme in today's ecommerce environment) influence purchases more now than ever.