The Future of Online Retailing &
eCommerce (Mail-Order Congress 2009)
‣ Futurist
‣ Strategist
‣ Author & Blogger
www.mediafuturist.com
twitter.com/gleonhard

What I do:
‘I give ideas’
www.mediafuturist.com
twitter.com/gleonhard
Basel, Switzerland

Social Media
beats eMail,
Video beats
Search

Our Future: Real-Time + Social + Mobile
Feedback, Rating, Comments, Tags
Source: trendwatching.com

Imagine what this will do to your business...
e
im ile
T b
-
l o
e a M
R l
e o oc ia
V id S

The cost of staying in-
touch is dropping to Zero
Source: Nokia Siemens Networks

What if...
• Your entire offering was
available on mobile devices -
and people could talk to you
about what they want?
• Your users would bring their
friends onto your platform, and
could import their reviews &
recommendations, as well?
• They could earn ‘Social
Capital’ that can be turned into
real money on your site?

What if most of
your customers
were really
connected?
Source: Kodak.com

What if...

What if...

Once technology becomes dead-simple...

Revenue
A great study in Behavior change

“What does the
Future look like and
how do we adapt to
that”

Meet the new Broadcasters

What does the Future look like...?

A new Marketing Paradigm emerges

Turning the USERs into $$

Now, Commerce happens within Conversations

Consider these facts
Real-Time Mobile Trust beats
Price
Social Video

‘Consumers’ are changing
Collaboration & Active Participation
Mobile, connected Lifestyle
Social Interaction Online
Personalization & Customization

The power of Free(mium)
Cyworld: $100M / year in virtual goods
LinkedIn: 25% ads, 75% Freemium Revenues
eBay: 84% transaction increase via API
NIN: $1.6 Million from a free album (and No.1 top selling
album on Amazon.com in 2007, despite free download)

Think: Content - Context - Connectivity -
Community - Convenience > Commerce

We are entering the era of social commerce

Social e
er c
mm
Co
i a l
o c Not Social
S

New mechanisms of Recommendation
Bookmark Geotagging
Sharing Real-Time
Reviews Status
Updates
Remix and
Picture &
Mashups Augmented
Video
Reality Uploading

Trust Trends
Source: DDB

Soon...
No
Conversations...
no Business
Social Commerce

Inject some Content into your Commerce
Twitter
Comments
Images
Product
Listing Video
Reviews

Content
can be syndicated and
become viral.
‘Buy This’ banners cannot.

So which business are you in?
Offer Sell
‘Virtual stuff
Home’?
Provide
Context? Connect
the Users?

Great Store + Great Product
Great Content + Great People
• Create, license or aggregate content that
adds solid value to whatever you are
selling: videos, tutorials, FAQs, help
menus, slideshows, tags, ratings...
• Invite people to register and contribute
• Feed your content into blogs, twitter, social
networks - decentralize!
• Create a ‘home’ that goes beyond ‘selling’
• Talk back via Twitter, video, blog posts

Create relevant Content
around your Brand.

Now not Yesterday
Content not Noise
Trust not Price
Apps not Ads
Mobile not printed

Thanks for listening!
• email me at gerd@mediafuturist.com
• twitter.com/gleonhard
• facebook: gleonhard
• more presentations at
www.mediafuturist.com