Posts Tagged Amazon

When will shopping become truly social?

Posted by Paul McSweeney in M-Commerce, Social Commerce, Social Media on July 16th, 2010

The concept of “social” shopping / commerce has been circulating for a few years, but the idea has yet to reach critical mass. Given how intertwined the purchase consideration process and social media have become, it is surprising that social shopping / commerce still seems to be in its infancy. So, if we aren’t yet ready for social commerce, what do we expect as we use social media to support our purchase decisions?

We expect to be inspired (awareness) – the April launch of Facebook’s Universal Like button and social shopping sites like Kaboodle and Woot! enhance our awareness of brands, products and services we didn’t even realize we even wanted…or needed. They allow us to browse brands and products without being tied down to any one retailer and importantly, they give us a window into what our friends think are must haves.

We expect deals (engagement) – you may not be a coupon clipper, but it’s hard to say no to a good deal. Social media has proven itself to be an effective channel for finding and sharing deals, promotions and coupons. The lure of exclusivity has buoyed deal-a-day services and made them increasingly attractive to retailers, manufacturers and social media platforms (e.g. Twitter recently announced its @EarlyBird service which will share time-bound deals from participating advertisers, Amazon acquired deal-a-day site Woot! in June). In fact, the promise of exclusive deals tends to be a key motivator behind why consumers “like” brands on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.

We expect a megaphone (advocacy) – social media gives us a platform to talk about the brands we love and the ones we want to make sure our friends avoid. A happy customer is a brand’s best marketer.

We may be conditioned to click on deals through Facebook for, say, a TV, but we aren’t yet fully on board with making our purchases through social media platforms. How do you think social commerce will evolve and when do you think making transactions within social media will be commonplace? Will mobile be the catalyst?

advocacy, Amazon, awareness, coupons, deals @earlybird, engagement, Facebook, kaboodle, Social Commerce, social shopping, Twitter, universal like button, woot

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Twitter is now into e-commerce

Posted by Paul McSweeney in Facebook, M-Commerce, Social Commerce on July 8th, 2010

On Tuesday Twitter unveiled its first foray into selling products.

The company announced @earlybird Exclusive Offers, which will be time-sensitive deals on products and events that will appear on the @earlybird Twitter account. People can follow that account to get access to the deals.

The idea borrows from private and limited-time sale sites, like Gilt, Groupon and Woot (which was recently acquired by Amazon), a recent trend in online shopping. It also takes advantage of what companies like Dell, which attributes millions of dollars in sales to posting deals on Twitter, are already doing.

The deals could be on products, like iPods or nappies, or on events, like concert tickets or travel. In a post on a company blog, Twitter hinted that it could filter deals by category, like clothing or gadgets, in the future. Twitter stressed that it would be selective about which deals were offered and “try and make these deals interesting and of value to you.”

The retailers will determine the price of the items and how many are available. Twitter will earn money from the sales. It is experimenting with different models, like a cut of each sale or a fixed price per deal, said Sean Garrett, a Twitter spokesman. The retailers will collect shoppers’ credit card numbers and otherwise fulfill the transaction.

This is a different approach to e-commerce than the one Twitter were potentially toying with last year, in which retailers could offer transactions on the site based on what people are writing about. A running shoe retailer, for example, could offer shoes to people who asked about the best shoes for running on trails. This might still be possible with annotations, a new service that Twitter says it is rolling out soon so that people can add so-called metadata, like a way to make a purchase, to Twitter posts.

The first deal will appear soon, Mr. Garrett said. They will initially be nationwide, but Twitter is considering offering deals specific to cities or countries later on. If @earlybird takes off, Twitter could become a competitor to Groupon and the many other local daily deal sites, as well as to Woot, Gilt and others.

@earlybird, Amazon, Dell, E-Commerce, Gilt, groupon, private sales, Twitter, woot

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How to keep selling online through the economic downturn

Posted by Paul McSweeney in E Mail Marketing, E-Commerce, Facebook, Social Commerce, Social Media, Social Networking, Thoughts & Opinions on June 23rd, 2010

After years of growth rates of in the double digits, e-commerce sales are projected to increase at a single-digit pace from now until 2012. There are two forces acting toward this trend: the economic downturn has added additional downward pressure on short-term sales, and according to some sources, the population of Internet buyers is approaching saturation. The global economic downturn undercut consumer retail spending in most channels, except the U.S. online channels, which analysts forecast to reach $229.1 billion in 2013, or 8 percent of total U.S. retail sales.

Some executives are more optimistic. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, has said on several occasions that e-commerce will account for up to 15 percent by 2016. The major catalyst for e-commerce growth in the short term seems to be in stimulating existing online shoppers to continue to buy and to shift a greater percentage of their total purchases to the web.

To do this, companies will employee online marketing initiatives but also stress the convenience, broader selection, and ostensible cost savings associated with buying online. In the longer term, teenagers already spending online will acquire more purchasing power and independence and will invigorate the online channel.

More than half of online retailers believe that the outlook for the retail industry as a whole is gloomy and that retail sales will continue to slow in the coming 12 months. But 8o percent of online retailers said that they believe that the Web channel is better suited than other channels to withstand an extended economic downturn. (But more than half also think that multi-channel retailers are better suited to weather the economic turbulence than single-channel retailers).

E-commerce retailers report that their conversion rates continue to range from 3% to 3.5% as they have for years, which is another indication that the Web has not been as adversely impacted as other channels.

Going forward, online retailers will continue investing heavily in interactive marketing, a significant expenditure for e-commerce groups. In this vein, companies will experiment with social commerce initiatives, even though questions still remain for social marketing ROI, such as blogs and social networks.

Acquiring new customers is still the number one goal of online marketing efforts. While other retail channels struggle to innovate and perform, e-commerce managers have a unique opportunity to drive more sales and to test different tactics that resonate with consumers. Even more so now than in fatter times, retailers must strictly segment their customer groups and create messaging that speaks directly and powerfully to these groups.

Amazon, blogs, double digit growth, E-Commerce, economic downturn, internet retailing, jeff bezos, multi-channel selling, online shopping, ROI, social marketing, social networks, Teenagers

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Amazon is moving upmarket

Posted by Paul McSweeney in World News on June 21st, 2010

Amazon is relaunching its online clothing and shoe business with a focus on high-end style as it vies with rivals such as Yoox and Net-a-Porter in the expanding online fashion market.

US online sales of clothing, shoes and accessories increased 17% last year to $27bn. Growth in clothing is expected to outstrip other categories such as electronics over the next five years.

Amazon has recruited software engineers who are said to building “great new features to change the way people shop for clothing”.

Amazon’s push into fashion coincides with a drive by eBay, whose sales in clothing, shoes and accessories topped $5bn last year. eBay relaunched its clothing sales under the eBay Fashion brand in April, adding videos and comments from fashion stylists and a “find similar items” image-matching feature.

It has also launched a “fashion outlet” in the UK and created “storefronts” in the US with leading retailers selling excess and discounted stock directly to buyers.

Both Amazon and eBay clearly view this is a significant growth area; and are adopting site innovations normally deployed by more specialised clothing sites. Expanding viewing options such as zoom, multiple views and colour variation being some examples.

The success of “flash sale” sites such as Gilt, Hautelook and Rue La La, coupled with the consumer slump, has caused many retailers to revisit this market. Selling heavily discounted stock direct to consumers is on the up..so good news for us!

Amazon, apparel, clothing, ebay, flash sale site, Gilt, Hautelook, reviews, Rue La La, storefront, videos

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Innovation brings a touch of class to online shopping

Posted by Paul McSweeney in World News on June 16th, 2010

E-commerce is not generally seen as the sexiest corner of the internet these days. Amazon has become the world’s general store, eBay the world’s flea market. Wal-Mart and Target offer predictably low prices. Brands sell direct through their websites, but hardly make that their focus.

Many luxury groups have opted out of e-commerce altogether, believing the risks of selling online – such as brand degradation and counterfeiting – outweigh any benefits.

This whole notion of the web being a channel of discounting went against the very aesthetic of these brands. But recent innovation has reshaped e-commerce. Luxury brands are discovering ways to reach customers without sacrificing brand integrity.

Applications on smartphones and the iPad have delivered a powerful interface for users to search, browse and buy goods. Ralph Lauren’s Rugby brand and Gap, among others, have developed their own sophisticated apps.

Indeed shopping is proving one of the most popular activities on touch devices. Sales through eBay’s iPhone app last year topped $500m. Purchases included a Lamborghini, and a Bentley.

All this shows that people are rapidly becoming used to the convenience of getting what they want, when they want it. Buyers are used to finding very expensive goods online. People are also confident enough to make big purchases without having to talk to a sales representative.

Luxury goods are among the most popular things consumers search for online, and a lot of it is their desire to know what’s going on with them, and their desire to own them. Yet meeting the demand and maintaining the luxury brand’s image was a perennial challenge.

Most high-end brands have established online sales through traditional channels, such as resellers and their own sites, and now they are gaining the confidence to venture out.

In addition to new applications, and private sales sites such as Gilt Groupe and Haute Look, one can also point to local deal sites such as Groupon and Living Social, and a new wave of companies that are bringing together location awareness, real-time inventory and deals, and social media.

It’s a huge period of innovation for consumer facing e-commerce. Customers are looking for curation, and social and mobile media are enabling real innovation and entrepreneurship today.

Amazon, Bentley, counterfeiting, curation, E-Commerce, ebay, Gap, Gilt Groupe, groupon, Haute Look, innovation, iPad, Lamborghini, Living Social, luxury brands, mobile commerce, Ralph Lauren, Social Media, Target, Wal-Mart

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Did Amazon miss the boat on Social Commerce?

Posted by Paul McSweeney in Social Commerce, Thoughts & Opinions on June 1st, 2010

Few will dispute Amazon’ s role as the current king of the e-commerce space. Many of the leading lights in social commerce, were present at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York last week, where they discussed the idea of social commerce and where the marketplace is going in the future in terms of both monetisation and socialisation.

All of the panellists seemed to agree that Amazon will continue to reign supreme in “commodity commerce” but will not be able to lead in social commerce. More people are starting to crave relationships in shopping was their conclusion, and that Amazon will continue to monopolise the “boring old” way of shopping!

These relationships have captured the attention of millions of paying customers. Groupon is valued at $1.35 billion, while Gilt Groupe is expected to triple revenues this year.

Other industry giants are thinking through ways to horizontally integrate into the social commerce space. eBay is aggressively targeting the flash sales market, having recently launched the Fashion Vault. , a flash sales site that offers deep discounts on designer items.

While an acquisition may make perfect sense for a cash-rich company like Amazon (they have $5bn stashed away!) some will argue that they should continue to focus on scaling traditional online retail business. After all, revenues continue to rise as they continue to sell a ridiculous number of Kindles, and other products. And they did recently acquire Zappos for $1.2bn.

For over a decade, Amazon and eBay have enjoyed the fruits of a market that required a greater focus on scale than on innovation. But the rise of Groupon, LivingSocial, Vente Privee, and other social commerce sites have taught us an undeniable truth that customers are ready for something different.

The question is whether Amazon will disrupt its own model in order to preserve its reign as King.

Amazon, commodity commerce, ebay, Livingsocial, Social Commerce, TechCrunch, vente privee

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The experts predict a massive rise in social commerce.

Posted by Paul McSweeney in Facebook, M-Commerce, Social Commerce, Social Media, Social Networking, Thoughts & Opinions on May 26th, 2010

Silicon Valley uber-VC John Doerr said today “we are on the verge of a massive reinvention of the Web” that will call forth social entrepreneurs in rising numbers to take the convergence of social media and mobile technology and create new types of “social commerce” around new devices like the iPad.

Doerr, interviewed by PBS host Charlie Rose at today’s TechCrunch Disrupt conference in Manhattan, said the first great wave of social innovation came with the rise of computer power in the 1980s; the second great wave came in 1995 with the rise of the Internet as an information-sharing device. The third great wave is now, he says. “We’ve entered a whole new applications economy, where all sorts of new applications of Web technology are being driven by the new relationships” being fostered by social media, “and this is turning the world around in a really exciting way. ” Doerr said, for example, that the iPad “is not just a new fad, but a new paradigm” in the way people create relationships – and will, in turn, create new types of business products, cultures, and strategies for good.

“The iPad is not a computer; you do not need a mouse to operate it,” said Doerr, a partner in the legendary VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.”These are commercially new kinds of magical surfaces that are social. You can take the iPad to concerts, to church,” he said. “(The iPad and other such social devices) also lead to a new kind of fluidity, a full immersive experience” for people “and a rich terrain for hundreds of new startups and social ventures that both make money and serve society.” This new type of commercialism, Doerr said, will make one’s friends “the most important driving factor in making purchasing decisions.”

Doerr also predicted that this new wave of social technology/social business will change the workplace, speeding a rise of new “missionary” business cultures — rich with new levels of collaboration and social consciousness. “Mercenaries are motivated by financial statements, and sometimes a sense of entitlement,” Doerr said, “but missionary cultures are driven by value statements about contribution – not simply the bottom line.” Doerr added: “Mercenaries lust for making money but missionaries lust for making meaning.” He cited Apple founder Steve Jobs, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, among others, as being among these new missionaries. “These guys have turned down opportunities to sell their companies because they’re passionate about their products and their impact on society, where the product is the most important contribution.”

Doerr said Zynga – the games company – is the “fastest-growing social venture we’ve ever invested in” with 60 million daily users across the games the company produces. He said about 2 percent of those who play want to “buy a better tractor for a farmer or give to a friend or raise money to send bicycle seats to Haiti” or “otherwise do important social things with this technology.” This, says Doerr, is part of the vision and promise of this fledgling new era of social commerce “and it calls forth social entrepreneurs in numbers previously not anticipated.”

Do you agree? Let us hear from you.

Amazon, Facebook, iPad, Social Commerce, social entrepreneurship, venture capital, Zynga

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Social Commerce: It’s all in the mind

Posted by Paul McSweeney in E-Commerce, Facebook, Online Marketing, Services, Social Media, Social Networking, Thoughts & Opinions, World News on May 3rd, 2010

The purpose of this paper is to (hopefully) provide you with some insight into how social commerce works from a psychological standpoint.

It is important to understand why it makes commercial sense to help people to connect where they buy and buy where they connect. This will give businesses a distinct strategic advantage and enable them to deploy effective social commerce strategies.

Why does Social Commerce make sense?

1. By providing online shoppers with useful tools to make better and more informed choices, social commerce helps shoppers do smart and savvy shopping. This enables retailers to beat shopper expectations that drive loyalty and word of mouth advertising.
2. Retailers now have an opportunity to sell where customers spend their time; ie. On social media platforms. This provides a cost-effective way to capture traffic and market reach; as well as raise the possibility of impulse e-purchase; a huge untapped opportunity in e-commerce.
3. When properly used, social commerce/shopping tools, can harness the processes of social influence that take place when we are shopping. This is, in my opinion, the most effective and powerful reason for deploying effective social commerce strategies.

The Social Psychology of Shopping:

In short, it harnesses the human capacity for social learning; learning from the knowledge and experience of those we know and trust. Moreover, social commerce facilitates our ability to understand and learn from each other, and therefore profit from certain situations.

Psychologists have identified six universal heuristics (mental rules of thumb) that shoppers use to process information. Social shopping tools are powerful because they harness these heuristics to make purchase decisions more likely.

Heuristic 1: “Social Proof”/ Follow the crowd:

To resolve uncertainty of what to do or buy, we often look at what others are doing or have done, and take our cue from them. When something stands out as popular or dominant, we instinctively perceive this as social proof that it is correct or the most valid option – this is classic peer power in action.

Social Commerce Application: Social shopping tools that use social proof to stimulate heuristic-thinking shopping decisions include:

Pick lists – wish-lists offer social proof about what people want and what is desirable.
Popularity Lists – allow shoppers to view options by “most popular” , “most viewed”
Customer Testimonials.
Social Media reviews – from other customers to provide trustworthy proof about product or service quality.

Examples include Amazon, Apple (iTunes)

Heuristic 2: Authority/ Follow the Authority:

People have a natural tendency to defer to the conclusions of an expert or authority, regardless of what they say. With specialist knowledge, experience and expertise, they save us time and energy thinking things through. “Four out of Five Doctors recommend” being one example of this.