purchase pals
shopping companions that help us think through our alternatives and make a decision
strengthen relationship with others but reduces purchase risk
surrogate: sales associates and other shoppers
social commerce
subset of ecommerce, uses social media applications to enable online shoppers to interact and collaborate during the shopping experience
ecommerce with social aspect
ecommerce
practice of buying and selling products and services via internet
social shopping
situations where consumers interact with others during a shopping event, opens influence
provides utility to shopping because it lowers perceived risk
ie bookmarking products, emailing summaries, subscribing to RSS feeds
shopping motivation
utilitarian or hedonic
utilitarian
functional or tangible
motives: convenience and ease, more choice, better information, rational and efficient decisions
hedonic
pleasurable or intangible,
motives: social experiences, opportunity to share with like-minds, sense of importance when others wait on us, thrill of the hunt
consumer decision making
1. problem recognition
2. information search
3. alternative evaluation
4. purchase
5. post-purchase evaluation
zero moment of truth
consumers may be influenced in several moments online prior to making purchase decision
average 10 sources of information, half via social media, before purchase point
first moment of truth
moment a consumer chooses a product form the store shelf
second moment of truth
moment the consumer uses the product and feels satisfaction or dissatisfaction
reviews
assessments with detailed comments about the object in question
shoppers intensely study, not a casual behavior
influence impression
should include product information, overall impression, pros and cons, experience, final recommendation
questioned because
ratings
scores generated by users that reflect assessments of attributes like perceived quality, satisfaction, or popularity on a scale
heuristic - a mental shortcut consumers use to help with decision making
verification
validation just prior to purchase, may use reviews and ratings
most trustworthy source of information
other consumers about products, more than tv, magazine, radio, or internet ad, sponsorships, recommendations from paid endorsers
recommendations and referrals
originate from recipient's social graph, more influential than reviews and ratings because leverages social capital
ie. Facebook's like button
helpfulness ratings
a rating of a rating, quality indicator to other users before they invest time reading and also provide feedback to those who complete reviews
benefits of reviews
sales - 25% complete them but account for 1/3 of sales
organic search results - improve because keywords
stickiness - enhanced
offline promo strategies - enhanced
research data - consumer opinion unobtrusively
encouraging influence impressions
first level of social commerce strategy, utilize UGC
1. share tools
2. recommendation indicators
3. reviews and ratings
4. testimonials
5. user galleries/ user curated shopping
6. pick lists
7. popularity filters
8. user forums
best practices to leverage social reviews and ratings
1. authenticity - accept positive or negative
2. transparency - acknowledge opinions that were invited, incentivized
3. advocacy - enable rating of opinions
4. participatory - encourage contribution
5. reciprocity - value opinions
6. infectiousness - enab
key components to WOM marketing
1. educating people about your products and services
2. identifying people most likely to share their opinions
3. providing tools that make it easier to share information
4. studying how, where, and when opinions are being shared
5. listening and respondi
reasons for no reviews and ratings
1. fear that dissatisfied customers will use the review feature as a venue to flame a brand (unfounded)
2. challenges related to acquiring and managing reviews and review process, site maintenance
benefits of negative reviews
80% of ug reviews are positive
accurately assess degree of risk
informative
enhance credibility
suggestions for improvement
shop together
digital shopping experience akin to the one you'd have face to face with friends
sales promotions
short term deals designed to generate demand in a specific time period, using social communities
social shopping portal
enables conversion from browsing to buying
ie wanelo
right to be forgotten
search engines responsible for eliminating or removing search results that provide links to past stories people and businesses don't want exposed