eCommerce

2011 Social Media Trend – eCommerce & Facebook

Posted on by in Corporate Social Strategy, eCommerce, Social Media, Social Media Consulting, Trends | 1 Comment

Just a few months ago, you’d have had to argue why your business should have a Facebook store; today you’d probably have to justify any decision not to have an e-commerce function on Facebook.  It is becoming so big now that it is enabling a huge shift how people shop and how they are influenced. Facebook is coming up on 600,000,000 users which is about 8.7% of the world population. That’s an astronomical number and seems to be growing at ever increasing speeds.

Hence, it comes as no surprise that new f-commerce pages from major brands and retailers are beginning to gain traction and actually generate revenue. Actual ROI. This new function allows people to shop directly from Facebook tabs without leaving the site, which is huge in that Facebook users prefer not to leave the site.

Facebook commerce (f-commerce) is the newest trend for 2011 and by 2014 I would imagine that most consumer packaged goods, airlines and retailers will be seriously considering this functionality on their Facebook pages.  It should be an interesting year.

Here is a very insightful study by Altimeter Group, one of the most influential thought leaders in the area of social media strategy and social commerce. A must-read for anyone seriously considering utilizing social media and e-commerce.

Rise of Social Commerce

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Social Media & Retail Marketing

Posted on by in Corporate Social Strategy, eCommerce, Retail, Social Media, Trends, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

RetailI recently attended a very interesting Twin Cities Social Media Breakfast (@SMBMSP) panel discussion at the Mall of America on the subject of social media & retail. The four panelists included

It was good to see such a broad range of retail experience and each panelist brought up some interesting points on how they approached social media. It was surprising to see that Best Buy, Izzy and MOA didn’t really have a social media strategy before engaging on social channels but it made sense considering they were early adopters of the technology.

Jennifer admitted that it would have been preferable for Best Buy to first build a social networking strategy around their business objectives but there really wasn’t a roadmap for them to follow. The same was true for Mall of America in that they just started tweeting and building a Facebook fan base before considering how it was going to be integrated with their more traditional efforts.

I greatly appreciate these companies for being early adopters and I believe other companies can learn a great deal from their efforts. All panelist admitted to making mistakes but they learned from them and have incorporated those insights into their communication efforts which has greatly enhanced engagement with their key audiences.

Social media has now matured enough were companies can now learn from these early adopters and build a social strategy that has a foundation in overall business goals and objectives. Just imagine if these companies knew then what they know now; I imagine they’d be able to come up with an incredibly effective marketing strategy.

My advice for retail companies considering a social media marketing strategy is to learn from these companies and build on their best practices.