Different Social Commerce: The Blog-Up Stores
“If I had to guess, social commerce is the next area to really blow up.” It may not be necessary to mention the author, but just to make sure – yes it was the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg.
So how is social commerce really doing? Is it blowing up and keeping everyone, the businesses and the customers, really happy?
There’s a variety of definitions of what is social commerce, some call it poetically “…a marriage between social media and e-commerce…”, some go straight to the core “…the technologies that facilitate interactions between people who like to buy stuff“…
My favorite by Heidi Cohen:
Social commerce is shopping-oriented social media marketing that touches buyers before, during and after their purchase. It encompasses a broad array of options including group buying, social shopping, mobile apps, retailers adding social features, and shopping integrated into social media.
- Changes how products are brought to market
- Builds brand awareness cost effectively
- Expands target audience
- Enhances product discovery/awareness
- Creates social media content
- Enables peer recommendations
- Expands relationships with others who share your tastes
- Offers group buying opportunities
- Develops social shopping opportunities on social media platforms
- Links bricks and mortar stores and social connections through use of mobile
Found a recent example combining the above mentioned points in a distinguishable social commerce approach for a Swedish retailer, Lagerhaus.
To start the buzz around a new on-line store Lagerhaus came up with an interesting variation of the on-line pop-up fan-shop trend.
Six leading bloggers in the category were invited to create customized stores on their blogs with a special app.
And as social commerce is about peer recommendations, social shopping and linking mortar stores and social connections, the readers were also invited to come meet the bloggers at physical world stores as well.
The results have been just awesome:
- brand’s Facebook fans have increased 226%;
- interactions have surged 360%;
- and 13,000 readers showed up for a fan-only on-line store launch.
And according to such splendid results, the blog-up store remained a permanent distribution channel for Lagerhaus.
Now I’d like go back to the definition by Heidi Cohen and connect some of them to Lagerhaus’ blog-up stores campaign:
Changes how products are brought to market – there have been pop-up stores, reviews and promotion on blogs, but it’s about finding unique ways to get to the market(s). These does not have to be expensive, it’s more about taking a different approach/look on the channels.
Builds brand awareness cost effectively – maybe connecting to the top bloggers was paid, maybe not, but the results speak for themselves. But curious about Lagerhaus’ sales.
Expands target audience, Enhances product discovery/awareness and Creates social media content – I’d like to combine these as it’s connected with the increase of fan base, interaction and awareness, these have also been met with people coming to the store launch.
Enables peer recommendations & Expands relationships with others who share your tastes – again, if it would not have been recommended by peers and followers sharing the same or similar ideas, the number of people coming to the launch would be much much lower.
Develops social shopping opportunities on social media platforms – No need for a comment, an example of a basically simple idea brought to life, give people the opportunity to make things their way and it will come back as a reward.
Links bricks and mortar stores and social connections through use of mobile – even though the on-line presence is a must nowadays, people still like to go for “traditional shops”. But that does not mean they have to distinguish them and shop also through mobile.
Have a great example of a social commerce execution? Leave a comment below, looking forward to read it.
Sources: socialcommercetoday.com, blogs.imediaconnection.com, heidicohen.com
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