Shopping Goes Social Media

Shopping online is no longer what it used to be. And thanks to technologies such as smart phones, social networks and crowdsourcing a new, blooming business has developed: social shopping. Here are 5 thoughts on what it can mean for your business.

1. Sharing is caring

It is not the amazing deals that is the success story behind fast growing Groupon ”People like to share a deal with friends for a variety of reasons. Maybe to help them save money, or maybe they want to plan to do something together” says Groupon CTO Ken Pelletier to readwriteweb.com. Thanks to these insights Groupon receives a high level of social sharing, gaining a lot of ”free” marketing on Twitter an Facebook.

2. Great minds think alike

Just like i the ”real” world we discuss information about products, prices and deals with our friends. This is something the fashion industry has put a lot of effort into applying on to the online shopping experience. Many sites allow users to create their own, sharable shopping list. Or even a virtual closet to show off your latest buys. In Sweden, Ellos Friend’s Store, is a great example of combining Facebook with their e-commerce.

Another interesting example is Amazon. Based on your likes and favorites from your social graph on Facebook, Amazon provides product suggestions to you. When connecting the account, Amazon can also scrape the interests of your friends. Thanks to that information, you can now view gift ideas to friends based on that data. And also see what’s popular among your network, as well as suggestions to based on your social graph.

3. Location is everything

Forusquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places. Location has been a big trend 2011. American Express and Federated Media announcing released an iPhone app free of charge, called Social Currency. It let users track things they want to by, post pictures of purchases and comment on what friends do. All posts end up at Twitter and Foursquare.

4. F-commerce

Facebook + E-commerce = F-commerce. There are many different ways of using Facebook in order to sell products. Here are three.

- Facebook-Facilitated On-Site Selling:
When brands bring the Facebook experience to their websites, using users’ connection

and interests to support the purchasing process.

- Facebook-initiated Selling:
When business accounts set up a storefront on their Facebook Page.

- Complete Selling through Facebook
When the shopping is seamlessly integrated with the Facebook interface. Shoppers can select products, option and see delivery dates without leaving Facebook.com.

5. No scams with scan

Thanks to bar code scanning costumers get a quick overview of the product and price comparisons from a database of merchants. While scanning the bar code of a product may not seem very social, it is in the long run. Thanks to the much better information for costumers, it’s inevitably shared online. As mentioned earlier before, costumers like to save money. As well as provide advice to fellow shoppers.

This is just the beginning. What we’re experiencing now is just where online shopping was before Amazon came on the scene.

Why Should You Care ?

If you, like we, think that we will increasingly – use mobile and  social media more in our everyday life and that consumers want to belong, love to share and to save money and time.