Presentation by: Zak Stambor, Associate Editor, Internet Retailer Magazine www.bdionline.com

1. Making e-retail social
How online retailers are leveraging
Facebook’s API to spur sales

2. First, a brief plug

3. A brief profile of Vertical Web Media
• Vertical Web Media LLC is a premier provider of
information to online retail and mobile commerce
executives.
– Our best known brands are:
• Internet Retailer, an award-winning, 11-year-old monthly publication
that boasts the largest circulation of any retail business magazine with
more than 44,000 subscribers.more than 44,000 subscribers.
• The Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition, the industry’s largest
annual gathering attracted more than 6,400 attendees in June 2010.
Named the fastest-growing trade show in North America by
Tradeshow Week.
• The Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide annually ranks the leading North
American retailers by online sales.
• We have four weekly IRNewsLink e-newsletters—NewsMakers,
IRNewsLink, Top 500 Watch and Focus—as well as our newest
newsletter Mobile Commerce Report.

4. A quick primer
• In a typical month, 66% of online adults visit a social
networking site, like Facebook or Twitter.
– Nearly half of those consumers visit at least one of those
sites multiple times a day. Another 17% visit the site(s)
daily.
– 68% of those consumers who regularly visit social– 68% of those consumers who regularly visit social
networking sites have shown support for products, brands,
artists, etc. by following or clicking that they Like them, up
from 57% in 2008.
– Roughly one in five social network visitors say they search
their social network(s) for information before making a
purchase, up from 17% a year ago.
* Experian Marketing Services

5. The basics of the Like button
• Facebook launched the Like button plug-in in
April.
– The plug-in is a single line of HTML code that a retailer
can add to its site (in one of two ways) in order to
feature the Facebook Like button.feature the Facebook Like button.
– When a user clicks the Like button, that information
appears in the News Feed with a link back to the
retailer’s web site.
– If a retailer adds the Like box, another line of HTML
code, users can also see who has already clicked that
they Like the product.

6. What it looks like

7. The uptake
• In less than five months, more than 2 million
web sites have added social plug-ins.web sites have added social plug-ins.

8. The Benefits
• The average consumer who has clicked that he
Liked a product has 2.4x the number of
friends than that of the typical Facebook user.
• Consumers who click that they Like products• Consumers who click that they Like products
click on 5.3x more links to external sites than
the typical Facebook user.

9. Weaving Like throughout: Levi.com
• In April, Levi.com launched a revamped site• In April, Levi.com launched a revamped site
that leveraged Facebook’s social plug-ins.

13. The results
• More than 1.9 million have clicked that they Like
Levi’s.
• Allowing consumers to click that Like a product
allows Levi's to highlight its most fashionableallows Levi's to highlight its most fashionable
styles, and to do so with an authoritative voice—
the voice of the consumer.
• The Like button integration may also provide
other direct benefits, such as allowing Levi’s to
alter its future lines based on consumers' likes.

14. The deep, dark secret
• Measuring the payoff in terms of sales isn't
simple.simple.

15. Even more social: GiantNerd.com
• Outdoor gear and apparel retailer
GiantNerd.com launched in May with theGiantNerd.com launched in May with the
intention of differentiating itself by offering
consumers a variety of ways to socialize
around its brand.

16. Above the fold

18. At launch
• The site featured the Powered By Love community
where consumers can post comments, engage in
discussions, post reviews and ask questions.
• Each product page allowed consumers to pose
questions on every product page.questions on every product page.
• To entice consumers to take part in the Powered By
Love community, the retailer offers GiantNerd
Rewards to shoppers who review products, ask and
answer questions, upload photos, join groups, share
products on social networks such as Facebook and
Twitter or who start, or comment on, a conversation.

19. But how to attract new shoppers?
• In August, GiantNerd added the Like button to
each of its product pages.each of its product pages.

20. The results
• Since adding the button, GiantNerd has
increased traffic coming from Facebook 100%.
• The number of those consumers who place an
order has jumped 30%.order has jumped 30%.
• The average order value from those orders has
risen 50%.

21. And now…
• GiantNerd plans to introduce other initiatives
that build Facebook’s application
programming interfaces, or APIs.
• For instance, the retailer last month launched• For instance, the retailer last month launched
an application that allows a consumer who
asks a question on GiantNerd.com to post the
query on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and
other social networks.

22. Creating a viral loop: Tea Collection
• Tea Collection is a high-end children’s clothing
retailer.
• The site added the Like button in May.• The site added the Like button in May.

24. The Like enticement
• Tea Collection launched a promotion before
the end of the summer season.the end of the summer season.
– Presented various dresses and said the one with
the most Likes at the end of the day would go on
sale.

26. The results
• More than 3,000 Likes in about 12 hours.
• Site visits were 300% above average.• Site visits were 300% above average.
• 10x increase in revenue over the previous day.

27. ‘It makes more sense’: TheFind.com
• TheFind.com is a comparison shopping site that
uses a cost-per-acquisition model, rather than
pay-per-click.
– That approach applies only to retailers that feed data
to TheFind via affiliate networks like Commission
Junction and LinkShare.
to TheFind via affiliate networks like Commission
Junction and LinkShare.
• Some retailers get free clicks from TheFind.com
as the site crawls 500,000 retail sites, collecting
product data and prices.
– About 65% of consumers’ clicks on the site generate
no revenue for the site.

28. How to woo shoppers
• Since its launch TheFind has aimed to engage
with the site by adding features, like product
reviews.
• The goal? Personalization• The goal? Personalization

29. • The site wanted to better understand who was
visiting its site. But building personalization
features on its own would be difficult.
• Enter the OpenGraph.
– Allows consumers to sign in via Facebook account.– Allows consumers to sign in via Facebook account.
– Opt in to allow TheFind to access the brands the
consumer and her friends have clicked that they
Like.

33. The Benefits
• The Shop Like Friends or Shop Like Me enable
TheFind to offer a simple personalization tool
without having to ask users to take extra
steps.steps.
• Helps consumer zero in from the more than
500 million products on the site.
• Helps brands accrue traffic.

34. The nut graf
• Cost
• Benefits
• Downside?

35. Zak Stambor
Zak@verticalwebmedia.com
Thank you!