Pinterest vs. Facebook: Whose users spend more?
Good post by @LauraHazardOwen on GigaOm says: “shoppers referred from Pinterest to 50,000 shoppers referred from Facebook and said the Pinterest users spend way more money — $180 vs. $85 — but less time browsing the site.”
Click the headline to read more.
ShoeDazzle: Gives Up On Subscriptions And Clearly “Gets” Social
After just over a year of significant scaling, a ton of infrastructure, investment, and TV advertising, the celeb-spun subscription shoe shopping service is announcing a strategic shift.
Adding apparel lines to its shoes and bags inventory, ShoeDazzle is offering its members the ability to buy what they want, when they want.
Fast Company has an interview with the site’s CEO Bill Strauss about these changes and what inspired the shift.
Now the question will be whether they can attract even more shoppers and get them to shop more often, without the big lines and labels most e-commerce fashion sites hang their hats on.
Right now their fairly active Facebook fans have only shared a few comments about the end of subscriptions but it’s positive. Worth noting: from a CRM and communications standpoint, the brand is very active in responding to comments and suggestions from their subscribers. It’s sadly so rare that you see page admins (or brand admins) responding so frequently, telling people they’re on it, or that they’re going to pass along suggestions.
This level of community management suggests that not only are they investing in social media in a smart way, they’re also more likely to be able pull off a massive shift in their core business without losing too many loyal fans.
How H&M made its Google+ page No. 1
Great read here: an evaluation of what the retailer is doing right with the medium.
“H&M’s approach to Google+ is spot-on: lots of pics of people sporting H&M clothes, together with a quick caption. Even better, H&M includes a link to buy the given clothing.”
Great read: Interview with @createthegroup CEO James Gardner in WWD: Online Landscape Evolves With S-Commerce
Beyond the social platforms, brands shouldn’t forget about their own Web sites. For James Gardner, founder and ceo of Createthe Group, this means concentrating on existing digital flagships.
Gardner — who’s worked with clients from Marc Jacobs to Burberry — looks at social commerce in two ways: version 1.0 being “share” tools and users rating or commenting on products, and social commerce 2.0, which he believes is only now being defined by companies and retailers. This will include a more integrated social experience on any platform where the brand has a presence (although this was once thought to be F-commerce). The former is more passive and essentially allows users simply to indicate what they “like.” The latter is what will become more active and interactive, such as the idea of live shopping with a friend in a commerce experience.
“It’s the simple things — wherever people are going to actively shop, that’s where there’s an opportunity for social commerce, whether you’re going to a brand’s Web site or a mobile site,” Gardner said.
(Source: createthegroup)
reblogged from morpheusmedia
Gap, DVF, and Nordies Shut Up Shop on Facebook
Facebook storefronts seemed like an interesting proposition to a number of high-profile retail and apparel brands last year. And I applaud the brands and their agencies for their willingness to experiment with creating e-commerce experiences inside of the world’s leading social network.
However, according to Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Forrester Research, “There was a lot of anticipation that Facebook would turn into a new destination, a store, a place where people would shop.
“But it was like trying to sell stuff to people while they’re hanging out with their friends at the bar.”
The truth is, pop-up stores have worked in skate parks and other unlikely social spaces in the physical world, so why not see if online social networkers are in the shopper mindset, too?
As these brands pull down their apps and get back to their ‘question of the day’ conversational marketing tactics on the service, I imagine this story will ricochet around other retail brands and their digital agency partners this month. F-Commerce plans may get scrapped in favor of Pinterest boards or Polyvore contests and rightly so. If our job is to carve out a slice of a marketers budget to try something and see if it sticks, to be disruptive and play with technology-based innovations, then I actually hope to see more articles like this.
Good for GAP and Nordstrom. Where next?
Is social going to start seeing marketers slashing those SEM budgets?
The Mashable-made @Pinterest infographic shared around the Web this morning and this chart/data via thenextweb will definitely be stirring up chatter in media planning sessions this month.
(via Facebook Commerce Holds Promise for Retailers - eMarketer)
reblogged from thenextweb
Shoply: Pretty Much Etsy, Then?
As per TechCrunch, UK-based (and massively scaling) ecomm startup Shoply just got a nice little injection of cash and support from people who deftly navigate social networks, the so-called interest graph, and ecommerce.
After having a bit of a nose, it’s got a few more social features than other direct-to-consumer sites, and creates a much speedier journey down the path to purchase than other interest networks. But I can’t say I’m seeing a huge differentiator here.
Sellers get pretty nice listings pages with lots of sharing features. And the service skims off a commission on all items sold. As TechCrunch points out, some of the unregulated shipping fees prove some sellers are having a laugh but let’s keep an eye on this one.
Fantasy Shopper Becomes One of Europe’s Hottest Startups
Fantasy Shopper is a social shopping game where players discover and share the latest fashion from real-world online and offline retailers.
Read more about the social gaming meets e-commerce site at TechCrunch
Luxury Brands Might Fare Better as Facebook Storefronts
Interesting: “luxury brands have a different—more personal and one-on-one–relationship with their consumers, which lends itself to trust. It may be they can succeed where other Facebook retails storefronts, have not succeeded as much as the industry had hoped.”
Distributive E-Commerce Developed by Retailer for Bloggers
Supersmart content/product marketing developed and distributed by a retailer to bloggers. I love this example of innovation coming from the retailer.
Rather than take the traditional route of opening a temporary pop-up shop on their Facebook page, as Oscar La Renta, Burberry, Chanel, Joop!, Electronic Arts, Heinz, and others have done, Lagerhaus created a distributed pop-up shop widget for blogs – and invited leading popular interior design blogs to embed the widget on their blogs and customise it with their favourite products
