Social Commerce Landscape

Brian SmithUS Director

Useful Social Media@BSmithUSM

Huh?

What role does social commerce play in your organization?

What’s social commerce?

What role does social commerce play in your organization?

Some said NOTHING

• “The worst thing someone can say about your brand on social media is NOTHING” – Tom Hoehn, Director of Digital Media, Formerly of Kodak

What role does social commerce play in your organization?

DR. PAUL MARSDEN, EDITOR IN CHIEF OF SOCIAL COMMERCE TODAY The use of social technology in the context of commerce. Selling

with social media.

SUDHA JAMTHE, SOCIAL MEDIA SPECIALIST, SOCIAL COMMERCE AT EBAY: Facilitating purchases using social media and social behavior data

@BSmithUSM:

The core of social commerce starts with understanding consumer perception Principal reasons consumers connect with businesses on social sites

are for deals and purchases

Social Commerce Defined:

The Perception Gap

Social Commerce is in its infancy

Social commerce is on the rise◦ 1.93 Billion USD in funding for social commerce

startups in 1st trimester 2011

Social commerce is more than just sales◦ April 2010: Levi’s Friends Store◦ October 2010: Macy’s Magic Fitting Room, ◦ March 2011: Heinz’s Tryvertising campaign

Create unique forms of engagement:◦ Gamification◦ Rewards, loyalty programs, exclusive offers

Key takeaways of the evolution of social commerce:

We shared purchases with friends, gave reviews and made recommendations

Before Social Media…

Thanks to social media, customers are a click away from sharing their purchasing behavior with their personal communities

The SoLoMo customer◦ Access reviews, instant shopping advice, locate deals

while on the go

Social shopping sites/communitiesKaboodle, ThisNext, Pinterest

Kaboodle: 14 million monthly visitors, Over 900,000 registered users, 10 million+ products on the site

Shopping is more social than ever

Fastest site to 10 million monthly uniques Drives more referral web traffic than

Google+, Youtube, and LinkedIn combined Visual search drives commerce

Speaking of Pinterest…

Why?◦ Shopping is a social activity◦ Thanks to social media, shopping and sharing is easier than

ever

As of Dec 2011: The 3 top brands by fans were selling on Facebook: ◦ Coca-Cola (34m)◦ Walt Disney (28m)◦ Starbucks (25m)

More and more brands continue higher levels of engagement with their customers and are becoming more comfortable using social media as a sales channel

Social commerce is here to stay

The importance of Social Data for commerce◦ Customers use social media to discuss their

desires, future plans, purchasing decisions, and opinions

◦ Brands can spot trends in consumer data to become more customer-centric: Drive sales Decrease returns and support costs Inspire product innovation

Social commerce is here to stay…

Social commerce goes far deeper than having a Facebook store◦ It’s about discovery, sharing and innovation as much

as it is sales

Privacy issues are still the #1 concern◦ 89% of people age 20-33 worry about the privacy

implications of shopping on Facebook

Brands must minimize the perception gap for why consumers connect with them socially prior to implementing a social commerce strategy

In summation: