social shopping

Social Media has Played a Significant Role in the Rise of Marketing to Women… better keep an eye on the Latinas from #LATISM12

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Social has taken away numerous connection barriers between brand and consumer, giving brands more direct access to not just push information out to consumers, but to actively engage in ongoing conversation with consumers and their networks. Since women, who control 85% of household spending, are the majority of social media users, it makes sense that marketers naturally have turned their focus to marketing to women. They hold the purse strings AND have the highest and most interrelated social media presence.

The Social Path to Purchase… ~via @CollectiveBias

The Collective Bias influencer community creates shopper content By Stuart Feil

Septemer 10, 2012 ADWEEK

Shopping is, by its very nature, a social activity—people always want to know what other people are buying or discuss what they’ve bought themselves with friends and other shoppers. Nowhere is this more evident than in the blogosphere, where brand ambassadors (such as the ubiquitous Mom-blogger) share information and advice about what they buy and use. There’s power in this user-generated content, and brands and retailers want to take advantage of these influencers to drive excitement for—and sales of—their products.

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Brands Setting Up Shop on Facebook… no big deal

Not sure why the media, and some “pundits,” are so ga-ga over this. Seems to me to simply be another place to sell stuff and nothing unique about it… think “click to buy here” or about shops offered in the past from Yahoo, etc. Shoppers tend to buy most in dedicated ecommerce environments where they are comfortable and in a buying frame of mind.

This is nothing more than an additional storefront in a place that someone is less likely to make a purchase. IMHO will not add significant sales to a retailer, but worth trying if available and cost effective. Even Facebook is not expecting much in sales or they would be asking for a rev share/affiliate fee… instead they want to simply sell more ads which they know will be profitable for them.

Ted Rubin

Brands Need to be Prepared for Social Shopping

Social shopping has many components is expanding everyday, and has been around for centuries. Women shop socially with friends and family, and always have, so convincing them to share, participate and have fun with it is not the issue, but rather its the myriad of choices, the ever evolving applications, and the education process that goes along with all this innovation.

The problem as I see it is discovering and using the appropriate applications that will get the traction and scale required to make them valuable to both shoppers and brands alike.

Brands needs to work with companies that specialize in getting out on the front lines constantly testing, vetting and crowd sourcing to determine the viability, user friendliness, and potential long term value of new applications and how they will change the evolving social shopping landscape.

Ted Rubin