Abstract
Long before the Internet, people shared product opinions with friends and
family through word-of-mouth. Today, social media tools enable consumers to
extend their connections and conduct commerce in powerful new ways. And even
though surveys find that people join social networks mainly to communicate
with friends, an increasing amount of that socializing relates to sharing
product and brand opinions.
As people spend more time on social networks, retailers feel pressure to be
there as well. Most large online retailers have a presence on Facebook.
Twitter is a hotbed of experimentation for retailers that see it as a channel
for customer service, promoting the deal of the day and more. Facebook and its
third-party developers are creating e-commerce applications on the site.
In the future, retailers will emphasize marketing to their most influential
customers. Right now, they only have a limited picture of who their
influential customers are on social networks and how they share opinions.
Firms that can help retailers analyze the customer data they collect from
social media sites will be in demand.
Key questions this report answers:
- What is the outlook for social commerce?
- How are marketers engaging customers on social media sites?
- What social shopping features are retailers adding to their sites?
- Which retailers are paving the way in social commerce?
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