5 Social Shopping Trends Shaping the Future of Ecommerce May 26, 2010.

5 Social Shopping TrendsShaping the Future of Ecommerce

May 26, 2010

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The leader in social commerce, focusing exclusively on retail

• With over 1000 clients, the most widely deployed customer ratings platform in the world

• Most robust product offering• Technology platform complimented

by human support

Lauren Freedman,

President, the e-

tailing group, Inc.

Pehr Luedtke,

CEO, PowerReviews,

Inc.

The Voice of Cross-Channel Merchandising

• 15 years ecommerce consulting• Author, It’s Just Shopping• 50+ years traditional retail and

catalog experience• Fortune 500 client projects

ranging from strategic planning, merchandising, marketing, to technology development and messaging

• Proprietary research studies on mystery shopping, merchandising and consumer behavior

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Webinar Agenda

I. The e-tailing group Trend TrackerII.Why the consumer voice? Why now?III.2010 Social Shopping Study

Results

IV.Social Commerce Success PlannerV. Q&A Session

5 Social Shopping Trends Shaping the Future of Ecommerce

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The e-tailing group Trend Tracker

Social shopping from the merchant perspective

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Feature 2009 2008 2007

Product page Recommendation

98% 95% 96%

Zoom 89% 90% 86%Alternate views 76% 68% 66%Ratings/ Reviews 74% 58% 50%Share 67% 28% N/AColor Change 64%* 60%*

57%*Link to SocialNetworking Site

60% N/A N/A

Streaming Video Product Demo

55% N/A N/A

Blog 36% 26% 10%

Beyond the merchandising standards ratings/reviews occupy a prominent place on the product page while social and sharing tools

quickly see escalated penetration

Source: 2009 e-tailing group Mystery Shopping Survey

The Merchant Adoption Curve

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Keyword Search 98% Category Content 68% Limited Hour Promotions 50%Cross-sells 95% Video 68% Community Features 48%Seasonal Promotions 95% Alternate Payment Methods 66% Product Comparisons 46%Sales or Specials 94% Recently Viewed 64% Frequent Buyer Programs 46%Email as a Merchandising 94% Sharing via Social Networking 63% Live Chat 45%Top Sellers 88% Email Customer Service Alerts 62% Pre-Orders 43%

What's New87%

Gift Center/Suggestions61% Create Your Own

Custom/Personalized Products43%

Up-Sells 87% Gift Certificates/Cards 60% Mobile Applications (new) 41%

Search Landing Pages that are Merchandised

87%Brand Showcase

59%Deferred Payment Plans

39%

Alternative Views83%

Online Outlet59% Collection Selling (Shop by

Outfit/by Solution/View in a Room)38%

Coupons/Rebates 80% Multiple Ship-to's 57% As Advertised 38%

Advanced Search 78% Color Change 56% Interactive Tools 35%

Exclusives 77% Free Shipping - Conditional 55% 3D Visualization 28%

Promotional Incentives to Buy 74% Free Shipping - Unconditional 55% Gift/Wedding Registry 26%

Zoom 74% Contests 54% In-store Product Locator/Look-up 24%

Guided Navigation 70% Wish Lists 53% In-store Pick-up and/or Returns 22%

Product Ratings & Reviews 69% Blogs 52%

All 50 features in the survey in descending order as rated very to somewhat valuable (5-3)

Source: 2009 e-tailing group Mystery Shopping Survey

Reviews ranked in top 1/3 of features; social via sharing gains prominence

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Community or Social Media Tool

Employ todayPlan to employ in the next 12

months

Considering for future, beyond

1 year

No plans to employ

Facebook fan page 78% 13% 4% 5%Customer reviews 65% 20% 7% 8%Twitter publishing 64% 16% 9% 11%Blogs 45% 27% 10% 18%Facebook connect 41% 30% 9% 20%Social listening tools 33% 27% 16% 24%Viral videos 30% 19% 22% 29%Questions and answers 29% 22% 21% 28%Community forums 22% 14% 29% 35%Product suggestion box 16% 24% 20% 40%

Which community and social media tools does your company employ today or plan to employ in the next 12 month?

Source: 2009 e-tailing group Mystery Shopping Survey

Today 78% employ Facebook fan pages, 65% use customer reviews,and 64% are publishing via Twitter

Many merchants are already employing social tools on their sites

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Why the consumer voice? Why now?

• The information about products,categories and brands available online is growing exponentially

• With so much content available, consumers now have to “edit” in order to make the right shopping decisions for their needs

• Considerations relative to trust come into play as more social options exist for sharing and gathering information

• While the media fuels adoption of new technologies, customers will have the final say on which merchants and information they will ultimately trust

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5 Social Shopping Trends Shaping the Future of

Ecommerce

2010 Social Shopping Study Results

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Survey Objectives• Understand category-centric behavior relative to overall

trust and online shopping• Explore customer utilization of social media to assess

perception, interest, and propensity to buy based on engagement with these newer tools

• Trend customer reviews and social shopping monitoring changing and evolving consumer behavior since the initial jointly sponsored survey in 2007

• Assess merchant perception relative to consumer interest level in social media tools

Survey Methodology

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In March 2010 PowerReviews and the e-tailing group fielded an online questionnaire to over 1,000 consumers (50% male/50% female) who shop online four or more times annually, spending over $250 via that channel.

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5 Trends in Social Shopping

Control rests with consumers

Research starts with search, but happens on brand and retailer sites

Consumers expect social tools for their research

experience, engaging mostly with the basics

Consumers seek a variety of voices throughout the research experience

Facebook is the social platform for researching/shopping

1

2

3

4

5

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Control rests with consumers1

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Online research puts the consumer in control of the research experience

Year-over-year the percentage of overall shopping that involves researching products

online remains strong as currently 50% say it is a factor at least half the time.

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Most consumers satisfied with available info

82% report being somewhat to very satisfied with information when researching online

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Personal research drives confidence

83% are somewhat to much more confident about making a purchase decision when they conduct their own research online vs. speaking to a salesperson in-store

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And saves significant time

79% report saving somewhat to much more time doing their own research online compared to more traditional in-store research

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Most shoppers spend a significant amount of time researching

The time spent researching depends on shopper personality types but the majority (60%) report spending a week or more researching an information intensive product

prior to purchase.

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Research starts with search, but happens on brand/retailer sites2

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4Search continues to be the starting point for research; social media not top of mind

A majority of shoppers (57%) begin research with a search engine; yet one-fifth choose either the brand’s site or a retailer.

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Search is a conduit; research takes place on brand and retail sites

Past search, retailer and brand sites were named as the top places where shoppers will typically research products online.

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Consumers expect social tools3

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The basics continue to be important

Consumers expect social tools in the online shopping process, engaging mostly with the basics.

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Consumers are more engaged with the #1 social tool, reviews

Compared to 2007, shoppers are reading more customer reviews to be confident judging

a product with people reading 8 or more up 77% over 2007 and 16 or more up 140%.

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Consumers are taking more time to research

Compared to 2007, shoppers are taking more time with people spending 10 minutes or more up 28% over 2007 and people spending a half hour or more

up 83%.

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Consumers demand a more comprehensive and credible review experience

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Consumers seek a variety of voices4

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Friends and likeminded consumers are more influential than experts

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Consumers trust reviews to corroborate other research/voices

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Traditional ecommerce merchandising & customer service also serve as a voice to validate research

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Facebook is the social platform for researching/shopping

5

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4After basic social shopping tools, Facebook features show the most potential to inform buying behavior

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50 or fewer friends34%

The driver of Facebook relevance in social shopping is the “friend” voice

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Facebook provides an opportunity for frequent social engagement

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The e-tailing group checklist for facilitating trust

Think “trust” and the influence of all merchandising and marketing programs on how consumers will react and respond

Ensure your site is a destination that serves the information hungry shopper well

Present a product page complete with strong descriptions, in-depth user-generated content, rich media and recommended products

Nurture user-generated content and present the whole picture to garner the greatest trust among your customer base

Monitor and embrace social media in order to understand customer behavior that sets the stage for future selling efforts

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Social Commerce Success Plan

Developing your social commerce strategy

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1. Build the foundation for trust

1.Initiate the conversation, focusing on the fundamentals:1. Customer reviews

2. Q&A

2.Eliminate factors that degrade trust:1. Focus on content volume2. Present balanced

perspectives3. Identify verified users

3.Minimize the friction between engaging with content and purchasing a product

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2. Make content easy to find and consume

Findable through SEO Easy to consume

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3. Accelerate trust through the collective voice

“People Like Me” Staff “Experts”

Community “Experts”

Facebook “Friends” Brand “Experts”

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PowerReviews Social Commerce Suite

Retail Site

Foundation

Focus on the #1 tools with the greatest impact on buying behavior

Findability

Make it easy for shoppers to find and quickly navigate your content

Collective Voice

Give researchers access to all of the voices they trust in one place

Customer Reviews + Q &A

• Drives the highest level of community generated content

• People like you integrated into review collection process and display

In-Line SEO + Review Display 2.0

• Leverage customer voice and long tail keywords by making social content searchable

• Quickly summarize and add credibility to content with Review Snapshot & Review Faceoff

People like you + Facebook Like Button + Brandshare

• Turnkey integration of 3 most influential voices into your site

• Automatically display content from likeminded users, friends, and brand experts

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What’s next?

“Social commerce”becomes “Open commerce.”

User content invigorates the entire organization.

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Q&A

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Thanks for coming.

To request a demo/social commerce consultation:

– [email protected]

To contact your speakers directly:– Lauren: [email protected]– Pehr: [email protected]

To download a copy of this webinar, visit:– http://powerreviews.com/5trends

Also, don’t forget to come see us at IRCE in June!

Booth #628

Confidential, p.43

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