Hi Rita,

The potential of social commerce is enormous. But retailers such as Gap opened up F-commerce stores only to close a few months later. Maybe social commerce is more than sales?

Thanks for your comment,

Maria

Hey Maria,

Thanks for replying my comment. In answer to what you said about social commerce, I think that because it’s a relatively new concept, research on its
success (or lack of) is hard to find. Especially as even the definition
of social commerce has not been agreed.

But what I’ve noticed is that popular and niche marketplaces like Fab (for furniture), Etsy (for crafts), and Amazon and Groupon (diverse products) have enabled small businesses to compete on almost the same level as larger brands in terms of social commerce.

But what you can see from the examples given, is how differently the companies are using social commerce. While Amazon and Etsy use their own internal communities to review products, the others use popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter to encourage their users to share products with their social circles. In both cases I’d use the term social commerce as they use “social proof” to boost sales. And surprisingly, it implies that today people don’t necessarily care whether their source of information comes from their personal networks or a network of strangers, so long as the social proof is from an “independent” third party (i.e. not the brand).

That’s my two cents worth 😉

Hi Rita, thanks for sharing.

I agree with you, the Agile framework must be adopted across departments or we’ll never move away from silos.

In any multichannel strategy, incremental delivery is key:
– Helps with the risk management;
– Change is easy to incorporate;
– Enables feedback;
– Engages stakeholders;
Just to name a few.

I am really interested in social commerce. Here social commerce was given as an example but there are naturally other options. I would say that depends on the gaps of each organisation.

Do you know of any case studies where social commerce made a difference? If so, please share with us.

Best,
Maria

Also, the point you’ve mentioned about retailers competing on more than price alone is important as they can’t match cheaper online offerings. I think investing in social commerce is possible solution to “showrooming”. I like how Boxpark, the pop-up retail space is handling social commerce in this news article http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/news/boxpark-eyes-multi-channel-future/4007325.article

Thanks for sharing!

Rita