Viralogy

General vs. Social Recommendations – Getting More Personal

Ratings and reviews are consistently top-requested features by customers of ecommerce stores. In the last few years, huge companies such as Amazon have more than answered that call with sophisticated recommendation technology, and their answer has revolutionized the online shopping experience. Now consumers are able to not only see what others think of your products, but also see where else they can get the same product for lower prices. Being that online shoppers will believe customer recommendations over a company’s own brand and marketing message, this is a problem for many internet retailers. And this is where the new generation of social commerce – personalization tools – comes in to play.

A study conducted in October of last year by Brand Reputation showed that 84% of consumers were more likely to check online for reviews prior to making a purchase compared to 2008.

In the eyes of an ecommerce store owner, this could seem like a huge problem, especially if you rely on the power of your brand to sell products. Online communities influence customers on social trends and what to or not to buy. But as all obstacles, this problem is really an opportunity in disguise, for there is good news ahead.

While it is true that 70% of consumers online trust recommendations from unknown users, 90% trust opinions from people they know (Nielsen Research), and according to a Harris Interactive study conducted last month, 71% of online shoppers claim that family members or friends exert a “great deal” or “fair amount” of influence in deciding to use or not use a company, brand, or product.

So how do you utilize this influence?

Social Personalization Tools

With the implementation of the Facebook social graph, your customers will come on to your site and see suggestions specifically made for them tailored by data gathered through the people they are most likely to listen to – their friends and themselves. This shifts the focus in online shopping from what the community generally likes to what the customer personally likes. Rather than revolving shopping around what recommendation engines say are ‘hot’, personalization is about the individual. Customers get recommendations based on their own interests and actions on the web rather than reviews from others, and now can see - right on your site - what appeals to them appertaining to their own connections. Shopping has become an experience based on a customer’s social network.

How This Works

Think of your ecommerce store as it is now, but with one addition to the page: a “Facebook connect” button. If customers choose to click that button, they are now ‘signed in’ to your website through Facebook. This allows you to utilize the Facebook Social Graph, which means you have instant access to information on their public profiles. These data, including a user’s name, age, location, gender, and interests, along with their answers to some customization questions (all part of a tool built into your site), are put together to create a personal experience for the shopper unique to them alone. Basically, you are allowing a customer to tailor your website to their interests - what they see is what they want. This way, you are showing them exactly what appeals to them, and putting on display the items that they are most likely to buy. Think of the tool as a recommendation engine meets social media experience, because different customers now interact with your website in different ways. We call the idea behind this tool social driven personalization, and with social commerce becoming more and more focused on tailoring to the individual, this idea is going to be very hot very soon.