Definitions Social Shopping – facilitating [digital] interaction among customers as part of a shopping experience (in order to improve the shopping experience) Social Commerce – facilitating [digital] interaction among customers as part of a shopping experience (in order to improve sales effectiveness)
Pampers offered its Facebook fans a chance to buy Pampers Cruisers 3 weeks before they went in store. 1000 packs went in under an hour. They conveyed this offer via Facebook wall and user clicked on image which expanded in their news feed giving them the option to purchase the product all within Facebook. The ASOS f-commerce store will allow transactions to take place without leaving the network, and will include full product search, as well as like, share, and review tools. Given ASOS’ gold-standard standing in the UK online retail world, other leading retailers and brands are likely to take note – and take the cue from ASOS. Expect to see a 2011 move in the UK to harness Facebook both as an e-commerce platform, and a social layer to integrate into site-based e-commerce.
GAP offered 10,000 free pairs of jeans, for the first 10,000 check-ins, and 40% of all regular priced merchandise for check-ins thereafter. Individual Deals (Check-in and claim deal) Loyalty Deals (Deals for multiple check-ins) Friend Deals (Check-in together to get the deal) Charity Deals (User checks-in, business donates to charity)
Adding social layer to existing site for retail - justification similar to Levis store Tea Collection, the e-commerce site for kid’s clothes uses the Like button to let users vote on which items get selected for promotional sales. Traffic rose 300%, and sales multiplied 10x when the most voted for items (receiving 30K votes) went on sale
CAUTION Groupon is great for restaurants who have the margin to do it and who need publicity ** Do "the math"… this is the equivalent of a 75% markdown in Gap products. Doesn't Gap offer similar discounts to spur selling? ** Read the coupon, it expires 11/19 - BEFORE the Christmas selling season heats up and when Gap is normally slow. It is doubtful any other marketing is going to spur this type of traffic during this period. ** In addition, for the coupon to work, the person has to spend at least $50. Considering most sales don't neatly round to $50, there is clearly some amount over $50 being sold at close to full retail price. ** Then there is the issue of coupons not being used - estimates are up to 30%, so whatever that % turns out to be, it is a 100% profit to Gap This is clearly a cost of marketing, not an “above the line” expense. Given the directly measurable marketing results and this huge response, I would bet Gap (and other large brands) would do this again and again. As a former retail analytics person, I can't see how the Gap made any money on this -- particularly if Groupon keeps 50%. Their only hope of ROI is to attract new Gap shoppers with this promotion or get people to each buy $200 worth of stuff when they come to use their $50 coupon (even then it has to be incremental to what they would have bought). As far as I can tell, someone at the Gap was given a "budget" for social media and decided to spend it without justifying its ROI!!
Gap promotion has broken all records on Groupon – by 5pm 300,000 Groupons had been sold – about 10/second. The web is still digesting last week’s Gap social commerce promotion that generated $11m sales in one day. Hosted on the group buy Groupon platform, the “$25 for a $50 certificate” is one of the most successful social commerce events to date. Social media significantly helped push the offer. It appeared as Twitter's "Earlybird Offers" special of the day, reaching the program's 180,000-plus followers on the micro-blogging site. Gap tweeted about the deal to its more than 30,000 followers and authored a post on Facebook for its 606,000 "likers." Groupon's effort was more laborious, as it has dedicated Twitter and Facebook accounts for each of the 85 markets targeted in the campaign. So administrators for each market authored a tweet and post - manually, one by one - in order to push the special. In addition, Groupon's 1,500 affiliates promoted the Gap offer on their sites. A sponsored, above-the-fold ad appeared on Digg as well.
The Target Designer Sale on Gilt starts this Friday at noon ET, and Gilt members can expect an advance look at select items from this fall’s three limited-edition designer collections before they arrive in stores. The featured designers are apparel-maker Gaby Basora, who will bring her Tucker label to Target, decoupage housewares creative John Derian and the British luxury bag brand Mulberry. Gilt, which focuses on online flash sales for premium goods, has been branching out of late to extend its exclusivity model to more mainstream consumers. It recently teemed up with Starbucks, for instance, to offer exclusive deals to My Starbucks Rewards customers. The Target initiative is another alternative digital rewards program that will give Gilt members the benefit of first-look access to Target items that typically sell out once they hit shelves.
YouTique - Google TV just around the corner, it’s a safe bet to think that the future of social commerce will see YouTique as a v. 0.1 of the video-based future that what was to come. he French Connection YouTique – YouTube videos with annotated buy buttons – is social commerce that is elegant in its simplicity. Imagine where this could go. A YouTique on/off button on all music videos, TV series, and movies on YouTube – that displays a YouTube buy button on gear you are interested in (based on your personal likes), all within a YouTube-integrated shopping cart. It’s product placement for the YouTube generation (plinking) – and with a digital trace to sales.
Smartphone owners integrated their devices into their shopping routine by using them to find deals, research products, solicit opinions from friends and family on products of interest, share information about a shopping experience with friends on a social network and, of course, buy products.
Smartphone owners integrated their devices into their shopping routine by using them to find deals, research products, solicit opinions from friends and family on products of interest, share information about a shopping experience with friends on a social network and, of course, buy products.
Smartphone owners integrated their devices into their shopping routine by using them to find deals, research products, solicit opinions from friends and family on products of interest, share information about a shopping experience with friends on a social network and, of course, buy products.
GAP offered 10,000 free pairs of jeans, for the first 10,000 check-ins, and 40% of all regular priced merchandise for check-ins thereafter. Individual Deals (Check-in and claim deal) Loyalty Deals (Deals for multiple check-ins) Friend Deals (Check-in together to get the deal) Charity Deals (User checks-in, business donates to charity)
Uniqlo - Tweet price influence. Think about using for forthcoming menus/products The idea is simple; whilst the Uniqlo site is down, site visitors see a holding page where they can set the price for 10 Uniqlo items that will go on sale on the new website. Users get to set the price by simply tweeting their favorite item – the more people who tweet, the lower the price (more than halving the initial price). It’s fun way to promote your e-commerce web revamp, and of a similar vein to the paywithatweet service; you could almost forgive Uniqlo for using flash for the social commerce holding page…
ShopKick is social commerce for in-store – a check-in app that rewards you (kickbucks) for just stepping in the store (inc. Macy’s, Best Buy, Sports Authority) Solves the problem of getting people into your store – if Google is for click traffic, ShopKick is for foot-traffic
Try with a Facebook Campaign store (a pop up shop for a campaign) - users need an incentive to purchase via these channels Facebook Campaign Stores are the future of f-commerce? They’re quick, cheap and easy to set up, they help monetize campaigns, and ultimately, because they may help solve the century-plus old problem encapsulated in the famous quote of disputed origin) origin “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half”. These can be portable stores that can be embeded within blogs and other sites linking to Facebook. So set up your Facebook campaign tab/newsfeed store, set up your buywithatweet.com Twitter store, and then run a Groupon and Gilt event. You’ll have your 2010 social commerce bases covered.
Private flash sale clubs focusing on specific verticals and specific demographics. We also think private flash sale sites continue to represent a proven social commerce opportunity for brands (offering a VIP brand experience), retailers (online sales events)