Social commerce utilizes social media and user contributions to facilitate online buying and selling. It started with social networking sites and f-commerce on Facebook. Retailers recognize the large audiences on sites like Facebook and Twitter and are creating virtual marketplaces and social shopping websites. Benefits for shoppers include informed purchases from reviews and recommendations. Benefits for retailers include targeting large audiences, gaining consumer insights, and increasing sales and profits through word-of-mouth referrals. Some challenges include privacy issues, building customer relationships, and effectively analyzing social media data.
2. Definition:~
Social commerce is a subset of electronic commerce
that involves using social media, online media that
supports social interaction, and user contributions to
assist in the online buying and selling of products
and services.
3. Evolution of S-Commerce:~
• Started with social networking sites such as facebook, twitter, etc.
• Facebook commerce (f-commerce) has become popular.
• Collaboration amongst customers, suppliers and retailers.
• Retailers are looking at having their own Facebook page.
• Consumers can take buying and purchase decisions.
• Creation of virtual marketplace with social shopping websites.
4. Evolution of S-Commerce :~(contd…)
Traditional
Commerce
Electronic
Commerce
Mobile TechnologyInternet
(1990’s)
Social Media
Mobile
Commerce
Social
Commerce
S-Commerce
accessible from the
Internet & Mobiles
5. Why are retailers targeting Social Networking platforms?
Facebook: 750 million active users + 700 billion minutes spent monthly!
Dec 09: A significant increase of 82% in the amount of time spent on Social Network sites such as
Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc compared to 2008.
Online users spent an average of 6 hours each month on Facebook alone compared to just over 3 hours
in 2008 on Facebook and Twitter combined.
May 09: almost 80% of all age groups visited a social site & represents an avg. time of 4.6 hours/visit.
67% of people age 55+ spend almost 3.7 hours/sites.
May 08 - 09: shows an increase of 7% in the total UK internet audience on social sites.
Facebook announce profits of $500m (£300m +) in first half of 2011.
6. How can retailers influence shoppers to buy??
Retailers have used the new S-Commerce platform to overcome this issue in such manner:
Use Social Networking sites to bring shoppers with common interest together.
Use the possibility to leave comments such as feedbacks, reviews and opinions on Social
Networking sites.
Make shoppers feel part of a community or group.
Use the word-of-mouth concept and interaction between online users as a brand
promotion and an advertising benefit.
Use the info from customers reviews and feedbacks to improve services and products.
7. Marketing techniques available within S-Commerce:~
Social
Commerce
SCRM
Word-Of-
Mouth
Viral
Customer-to-
Customer
Open-Source
Social
Shopping
8. Marketing techniques available within S-Commerce:~
SCRM: Close engagement between customers and retailers to provide a long-term relationship
based on trust and brand loyalty.
Word-of-Mouth: Sharing of personal opinion or recommendation of one user to others.
Social Shopping: Informed shopping from Social Networking sites based on reviews,
feedbacks or recommendations made by friends, family or contacts.
Customer-to-Customer: Platform which permits a transaction from one customer
directly to another, e.g. eBay.
Open-Source: Platform where online users can discuss and share their ideas on
products or services among each other freely and anytime.
Viral: Mass advertising by using email footers, spam, or ads.
9. Features of Social Commerce:~
• Ratings and reviews for the products and services by users
• Recommendation technology features
• Get product recommendations based on their own interests or preferences
• Customers likely to check online for reviews prior to making a purchase
• Networked users generate new ideas, advertise, and create added value at
virtually no cost
• Facebook ‘Like’ Button on the product’s web page
• Better Understanding of the Consumer’s behaviour
• Instant Personalization of the user experience
• Brand Growth
10. 6C’s of Social Commerce :~
• Content – The basic need to engage with customers, prospects and stakeholders through valuable
published content on the web.
• Community – Treating the audience as a community with the objective of building sustainable
relationships by providing tangible value. Early incarnations of Community were mobilized through
registration and engaged via email programs, this evolved into online forums, chat-rooms and
membership groups where users were able to interact with each other.
• Commerce – Being able to fulfill customers' needs via a transactional web presence, typically online
retailers, banks, insurance companies, travel sales sites provide the most useful business-to-consumer
services.
• Context – The online world is able to track real-world events and this is primarily being enabled by
mobile devices.
• Connection – The new online networks are defining and documenting the relationships between people
– these relationships may originate in the physical world or online.
• Conversation –A conversation between two parties will likely surface a need that could be fulfilled, thus
providing a potential market for supplier organizations.
11. 7 Species of Social Commerce :~
• Social Network Driven Sales : Facebook commerce and Twitter commerce belong to this
part. Sales take place on established social network sites.
• Peer-to-peer sales platforms(eBay, Etsy, Amazon) : In these websites, users can directly communicate
and sell products to other users.
• Group buying(Groupon, LivingSocial) - Users can buy products or services at a lower price when enough
users agree to make this purchase.
• Peer recommendations(Amazon, Yelp, JustBought) - Users can see recommendations from other users.
• User-curated shopping(The Fancy, Lyst, Svpply) - Users create and share lists of products and services
for others to shop from.
• Participatory commerce(Threadless, Kickstarter, CutOnYourBias) - Users can get involved in the
production process.
• Social shopping(Motilo, Fashism, GoTryItOn) - Sites provide chat sessions for users so they can
communicate with their friends or other users for some advice.
12. Benefits of S-Commerce for shoppers:~
Social
Commerce
Informed
purchases
Reviews /
Feedbacks
Info
Sharing
Recommendation
Feel part of a
community
Transparency
Group-buy,
promotional
vouchers, latest
deals
Single
log-in
13. Benefits of S-Commerce for retailers:~
Social
Commerce
Target vast
audience at
one location
Gain insight on
popular
products
Ability to act on
negative product
reviews and re-
gain customers
trust
Use the word-of-
mouth referral to
increase demand
& profit
Obtain product-
shopper data and
use it for marketing
and business
decisions
Closer
customer-
retailer
relationship
Increased
demand, sales
and profits
14. Trends and the challenges of Social Commerce:~
Moving Away from the Traditional Media
Offering a United Shopping Experience
Privacy
Customer Engagement
Facebook’s security issue
Tools for social commerce change rapidly
Hidden soft costs
Building a strong relationship with the customer takes time
Customers can express their disappointment and negatively impact a brand’s
reputation
Usability testing is complex and requires advance skills
Need domain knowledge to have effective data analytics
15. Companies Successful Stories
Groupon $11 Million in one day sales for GAP
Spinback $2.10 average incremental revenues from each Facebook wall post + an
impressive 10.9 % conversion rate on Facebook shares .
Pampers Pampers sold 1,000 Diapers in 1 hour on its Facebook store.
Baby & me 50% of online sales come from Facebook
Spinback 10.9% - Conversion rate for Facebook shares that leads to a purchase.
Livingsocial 42,000 +
Facebook shares in 1-day for the $20 Amazon voucher.
Ticketfly 3.25 average sales generated through Facebook shares.
F&F £2 million +
Generated in sales with Facebook vouchers
16. Examples of E-Commerce & Social Media Integration:~
Social Networking
Facebook
MySpace
Twitter
LinkedIn
Bebo
Hi5
Friendster
E-Commerce
ASOS Clothing
Dove
Delta Airlines
1-800
flowers.com
These retailers have fully integrated
S-Commerce platforms available
already