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13/11/2011 by
7960 views

Social Commerce, Have You Started?

Organisations go where people go, whether these are boutiques to hip neighbourhoods (think of soho, NY) or nowadays brands entering the social arena. The next step is making sure you can offer your product and service on these ‘social’ channels. Learn more about the power of Social Commerce…

Alas, we can’t blindly adopt our e-commerce strategy to this connected web…

Peer Pressure
We all know that the biggest influencers in our purchasing funnel are our peers. But not only should we mobilise our peers to advocate our stuff, and have them convince their friends to buy are stuff. We need to add value to a relationship.

When you do not create a win-win relationship with your followers, you will not sell more of your products or services. Having a big fanbase is fun, makes a good story on the golf course and might even impress your friends or co-workers. However it doesn’t mean that these ‘fans’ would recommend you to others (as they were probably ‘bribed’  to follow your brand) or have any connection with your brand.

Only the ones that give you an NPS of 8 or higher and the ones that rate you lower than 4 are followers that add value to your brand. These are the ones you can sell your product to, help them in their needs and build a valuable relationship with.

Social Commerce Market
The definition of social commerce is still evolving; but it basically means selling your product and services through social channels but with slightly different rules. On-line behaviour: more than 25% of all time spent online is on social networks. It has been predicted (booz&co) that the social commerce market will grow to $ 15,000,000,000 (big number 15 Billion) in 2014 and to 30 Billion in 2015!

This is 10% of the entire eCommerce market. So it is time to re-imagine, sharpen our saws and prepare for battle. Timing is an essential game influencer in the social web; you cant buy relationships, you build them… so if your competition starts before you, they will have a great advantage.

How to start?
Check out your competitors, aren’t your competitors on social commerce? Check out their social presence and performance; how is their relationship with their followers? Are they yelling ‘look at me and buy my shit’ or are they listening and talking and having fun with their followers?

Reflect their performance to your own: this will give you an insight of their competitive edge. We need the people that give us a high or low NPS to create a game plan and sell… remember?

A top 5 steps:

  • set-up strategy, build your community and grow your s-CRM
  • evaluate and establish your relationships
  • content, content, content: make a beautiful page, write stories, solicit feedback and great exclusive offerings
  • gear up your internal organisation: customer care, logistics and marketeerd
  • promote your shop in your owned channels, earn attention around your content and integrate your shop location in paid media outings.

Who Does What?
To get an impression how others talk shop, I comprised two lists. One of the top retailers and their increase and the other is the top-20 of brands. (yes, we can safely say that Lady Gaga is a brand nowadays).

Definitely leading the pack is the entertainment industry;  music, sports and film, they all have a strong presence. As said; learn from them and start for yourself. It is extremely difficult to overtake your competitors if they are in the lead.

Top 25 Retailers + Increase

Rank Prev. Rank Retailer September
Fans
September
Increase
September % Increase
1 1 Victoria’s Secret 15,307,759 210,978 1%
2 2 adidas Originals 11,165,986 175,350 2%
3 3 Victoria’s Secret Pink 10,413,662 84,249 1%
4 4 Walmart 9,323,010 522,645 6%
5 5 Burberry 8,598,039 513,818 6%
6 6 Levi’s 7,464,384 181,213 2%
7 7 WWE 6,760,135 104,617 2%
8 8 Lacoste 6,526,625 123,563 2%
9 9 Hollister Co. 6,044,509 109,249 2%
10 10 Kohl’s 5,774,477 53,851 1%
11 11 Target 5,578,391 137,541 3%
12 12 Abercrombie & Fitch 5,450,902 91,143 2%
13 13 American Eagle Outfitters 5,425,455 76,510 1%
14 14 Gucci 5,375,022 116,216 2%
15 15 Aeropostale 5,221,075 72,332 1%
16 16 Forever 21 5,152,065 69,279 1%
17 17 Nike 5,132,174 151,724 3%
18 18 Best Buy 4,729,191 564,091 14%
19 19 Ralph Lauren 4,017,496 123,909 3%
20 20 NFL 3,948,754 136,364 4%
21 21 Hot Topic 3,540,718 57,209 2%
22 22 Dolce & Gabbana 3,319,258 60,959 2%
23 23 GameStop 2,842,519 85,181 3%
24 24 Old Navy 2,527,573 72,762 3%
25 25 Macy’s 2,514,069 182,338 8%

source; socialcommercetoday.com

Top 20 facebook shops

  1. Lady Gaga
  2. Justin Bieber
  3. Starbucks
  4. Green Day
  5. Grey’s Anatomy
  6. Muse
  7. NBA
  8. Dexter
  9. Desperate Housewives
  10. Lost
  11. Jason Mraz
  12. UFC: Ultimate Fighting Championship
  13. George Lopez
  14. Liverpool FC
  15. WWE
  16. 30 Seconds to Mars
  17. I Love Being Black
  18. Batman: The Dark Knight
  19. Celtics
  20. Best Buy