Viralogy

Payvment, the application that allows people to sell products on their Facebook pages, recently unleashed a new API in their launch of new tools for retailers and online product catalogs. Yesterday, the application demonstrated its ability by releasing its first export tool, which allows Payvment users to import Etsy inventories right onto Facebook for easy selling.

The Etsy import tool launch marks the beginning of a possible trend of small eCommerce businesses importing and exporting goods to and from Facebook. Retailers that do not have their own websites can create mini-stores by utilizing this Facebook application.

Payvment’s Utility to Small Retailers (more…)

As one of the largest airlines in the world, Delta Air Lines have pushed their reach even further by introducing the first ever social commerce channel by an airline on Facebook. Partnering with Alvenda, Delta Air allows Facebook fans the ability to book flights as well as share their travel plans with family and friends on what Delta has called “Delta’s Ticket Window.” With nearly 40,000 Facebook fans as well as a presence on Twitter (@DeltaAssist), Delta continues to push along the growing trend of social commerce. (more…)

When you have a lot of competitors, you need to build brand loyalty to ensure that your customers stay with you. With social commerce making the relationship between stores and customers more personal, it is time for retailers to take advantage of their existing resources.

Paul Marsden over at Social Commerce Today pointed out a brilliant move made by Starbucks that we just have to share with you. Recently, the international coffee chain partnered up with Gilt Groupe, a members-only retailer for luxury bounty hunters, to offer to Starbucks loyalty card holders early access to their limited-edition luxury coffee. Basically, MyStarbucksRewards holders received a VIP access email to a private sale of  a luxury coffee item (San Cristóbal coffee from the Gálapagos islands). This private sale was a day before Gilt members themselves got access, and weeks before the general public received the good. There are two main reasons why we think this was a great idea: (more…)

According to a survey of Fortune 1000 and Forbes 200 marketing executives conducted by Duke University and the American Marketing Association released earlier this year, social media spending will double in the next year. While there has been a growing sentiment amongst marketing professionals that online marketing is the way of the future, the hard numbers reinforce the notion that traditional marketing dollars will continue to drop: (more…)

80% of midsized merchants deem e-commerce growth a top priority

40% say they don’t think they’re maximizing their online revenue potential.

The Midsized Merchants Problem

According to a recent article from Katie Deatsch of internetRetailer, “A new poll by e-commerce platform provider Art Technology Group Inc.  finds 80% of midsized merchants deem e-commerce growth as very important or critical to their overall business in the next one to three years.” The article also digs deep into what these mid-sized merchants are hoping to improve on this coming year which include:

• 62% want to improve the ability to offer, control and manage cross-sells and up-sells to increase sales
• 60% want to improve site search functionalities
• 55% want to be better able to offer, control, and manage promotions
• 37% want to improve the help and customer service features on their sites (more…)

When Customer A visitors your eCommerce store, they more or less see exactly the same things as when Customer B, C, and D visits your site. Along the same lines, unless Customer A, B, C, and D knows exactly what they are looking for, they are likely to (A) click on what interests them immediately from what they are shown or (B) will leave your site.

Following this, we encounter one of the first decisions a customer faces during their shopping experience: ‘What should I look at?’ If the customer doesn’t see what they are looking for on instant, the less likely they are to want to stay on the site. While this is a problem that many eCommerce sites face, the solution is becoming clearer as the social space merges more and more with online shopping.

The Solution to the Problem

To begin, we introduce the term social commerce. Social commerce has been widely accepted as “a subset of electronic commerce that involves using social media, online media that supports social interaction and user contributions, to assist in the online buying and selling of products and services.” Now that we have defined social commerce, we add on the concept of personalization to it which gives us social commerce personalization. (more…)

Whether you want to embrace it or not, Facebook and social media is becoming more and more a part of our daily lives. From how we communicate with others to how we market our products, social media is finding its way into many facets of our daily lives. Among them is the way the we shop. Although platforms like Facebook first started as a way for users to stay in touch with their friends and family, it now allows us to share our lives with our Facebook community. In regards to shopping, we let others know great deals we found, what pair of shoes were gonna buy, and even that outrageous shirt we didn’t think anyone would ever get. As more and more users use Facebook as a ‘distribution’ channel when it comes to shopping and interests, eCommerce sites need to evaluate whether or not they need to begin incorporating Facebook elements into their store.

Ways to incorporate Facebook into your eCommerce store

1. Facebook Like Button

Earlier, we wrote about how Facebook now allows sites to add the Facebook Like Button to their products, articles, and pages.  Revisiting some of those same points, implementing the Facebook Like Button on your eCommerce store products can significantly increase your sites visibility as well as help gauge which products have more interest in others. For example, if you see that a products has only a few sales, but has the most ‘likes,’ that may be a signal to lower the price of that product. (more…)