Posts Tagged Gilt
Starbucks…on top of their social media game
Posted by Paul McSweeney in Facebook, Social Commerce, Social Media, Social Networking on August 10th, 2010
You’ve got to hand it to Starbucks, they’re the world’s most liked brand, in Facebook-world that is.
After pioneering social commerce-powered loyalty programmes on Facebook, using Foursquare to offer discounts for mayoral checkins, learning from Dell to create a customer-powered idea blog, and running promoted tweet campaigns on Twitter, Starbucks have now hooked up with the social commerce leader in private sales, Gilt.com in the US to offer their loyalty card holders early access to their new limited-edition luxury San Cristóbal ‘Special Reserve’ Starbucks coffee from the Gálapagos islands.
It works like this – if you’re one of the 1m+ Starbucks loyalty card members (MyStarbucksRewards), you’ll have received a special email invitation offering VIP early access to a private sale of the new, yet-to-be-launched ultra-premium San Cristóbal coffee on Gilt, a day before Gilt members get access, and weeks before anyone else. And you get to exercise your bragging rights with the ubiquitous Facebook like button on Gilt.
What we like, or rather love , about Starbucks’ latest social commerce initiative is it builds the brand, reinforcing the brand’s ability to discover and source some of the world’s exotic, rare and exquisite coffees and bring both the flavors and the experience to life for customers – especially it’s best customers.
It’s also smart social commerce in that that doesn’t erode margins – offering early access rather than price discounts to brand fans and followers. Furthermore, the initiative is designed to boost loyalty, rather than effect a short-term promotional sale bump – and in true Flip-the-Funnel fashion – is likely to stimulate advocacy whilst building customer lifetime value.
Additionally, it’s a very efficient social commerce initiative, leveraging an existing social commerce platform – the member-get-member powered Gilt.com – rather than seeking to build it’s own. And by choosing a social commerce platform designed for luxury brands – the luxury credentials of San Cristóbal are reinforced. We don’t know much this cost Starbucks – but given that loyalty card members have to join Gilt to access the VIP event, it’s quite possible it cost the brand nothing at all.
And finally, it’s a very successful social commerce initiative – Gilt sold out of San Cristóbal coffee before most Gilt customers could get access to the Private Sale; Starbucks loyalty customers snapped everything up.
We think this is a smart approach to doing smart social commerce – and one other brands, particularly upscale or luxury brands would do well to consider – and possibly emulate. How could you launch a product linking Facebook with a Private-Sales platform?
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.
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!
