One of the biggest e-tail trends generating buzz among industry watchers is "social commerce," and two studies out today show that the phenomenon is still gaining traction in the e-commerce marketplace.
Social commerce, used to refer to the increasing influence social computing is having on online sales, involves the inclusion of shoppers in the marketing and buying experience. Examples include integrating customer reviews and blogs into an e-commerce site, allowing consumers to help with product design and participating in community-based shopping sites and so on.
Don't Fear the Reaper One drawback to including customers in the marketing process is that you have no control over, say, what type of review or feedback you may get, but the anxiety may be unfounded. E-commerce analyst Sucharita Mulpuru of Forrester Research, Inc., addresses this in the report "How Damaging Are Negative Customer Reviews?" published today.
Though a vast majority of online consumers, 76 percent, use customer reviews while researching products, states the report, a much smaller percentage of online stores, only 25 percent, offer them because "sellers fear they will lose control of their marketing message and lose sales."
However, according to the research, which involved evaluating 4,000 reviews in the Electronics and Home & Garden categories on Amazon.com, "more than 80 percent of the reviews were positive, and the negative reviews that did exist were generally considered helpful to consumers," showing that they appreciate hearing the pros and cons when making a purchase.
Furthermore, Mulpuru says the fear of negative is overblown because customers will know up-front of any shortcomings a product may have, lowering costly side-effects, such as high return rates.
More importantly, the report states: "Despite the negative reviews that some products received, most consumers were nonetheless inclined to purchase many of the items. Why? Because the items suited very specific needs, or because the items received positive feedback from (other) experts."
Action Items for Customer Reviews Putting a customer review section on your site, however, involves more than just putting a button with a link. The reports strongly recommends actively pursuing return customers who have already opted in for information.
It goes on to say that outsourcing the administration of the reviews (gathering, editing and posting) may be worthwhile to get up and running, as it can take up a lot of time busy e-tailers may not have at the outset.
Finally, Web shop owners must engage in dialogue with those who participate, both acknowledging and thanking those who provide positive feedback, as well as doing damage control with those who post about an unsatisfactory experience.
Coupons in the Digital Age Meanwhile, another Forrester analyst, Lisa Bradner, today issued research finding that e-coupons are also playing a role in social commerce. That report, titled "E-Coupons Engage Customers Beyond Discounts," shows that Web shop owners would be wise to amp up their efforts in this area.
"Half of coupon users who go online use Web coupons as well. They make more money, shop online more, and talk about new products with peers more than offline coupon users do," according to the report. "To effectively tap into the value of e-coupon users, brand marketers must treat e-coupons as part of customer conversations, rather than as drivers of ad hoc transactions."
One-quarter of e-coupon users said they like to try new products and services before others, compared with 13 percent of offline-only users, states the report, which shows they also influence others with their opinions. Thirty-five percent say, "People ask me for information about products, places to shop, sales," compared to just 20 percent of their offline counterparts.
Constomer-Driven Products One example of an online venture heeding the advice to include shoppers in the buying experience is GoodStorm. The company specializes in providing free tools and social networking functionality for sellers to create online stores to market print-on-demand apparel. GoodStorm handles inventory management, shipping, logistics, and billing, so sellers can focus on creating designs and building a community with people who share their values.
In response to customer requests, GoodStorm just launched its "One-Stop T-Shirt Wizard," allowing visitors to create their own shirts online without opening an account or setting up a store. Clip-art is available, with space for up to three lines of text, and shoppers are also encouraged to upload their favorite photographs. For their text, users can choose from up to thirteen different fonts in thirty-two sizes in any color.
MDog Embarks on E-Commerce In other news, the mobile Web content provider mDog.com yesterday announced it is offering mobile versions of eBay, Wikipedia, MySpace and Craigslist.
At mDog.com on any mobile device you can browse, read, post and bid as you would on a home computer, says Keith Gerard, mdog's founder and president. In the case of eBay, mDog.com displays auction searches in detail and allows for secure, real-time bids. The company also recently released a mobile blogging utility.
Michelle Megna is managing editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.
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