5 Social Shopping Trends

Shaping the Future of Ecommerce

May 26, 2010

Lauren Freedman,

Pehr Luedtke,

President, the e-

CEO, PowerReviews,

tailing group, Inc.

Inc.

The Voice of Cross-Channel

Merchandising

15 years ecommerce consulting

Author, Its Just Shopping

50+ years traditional retail and

catalog experience

Fortune 500 client projects

ranging from strategic planning,
merchandising, marketing, to
technology development and
messaging

Proprietary research studies on

mystery shopping, merchandising
and consumer behavior

The leader in social commerce,

focusing exclusively on retail

With over 1000 clients, the most

widely deployed customer ratings
platform in the world

Most robust product offering

Technology platform complimented

by human support

pg. 2

Webinar
Agenda
I. The e-tailing group Trend Tracker
II.Why the consumer voice? Why now?
III.2010 Social Shopping Study
Results
5 Social Shopping Trends Shaping the Future of
Ecommerce

IV.Social Commerce Success Planner

V. Q&A Session

pg. 3

The e-tailing group Trend

Tracker
Social shopping from the merchant
perspective

pg. 4

The Merchant Adoption

Curve

Beyond the merchandising standards ratings/reviews occupy a

prominent place on the product page while social and sharing tools
quickly see escalated penetration

Feature

2009 2008 2007

Product page
Recommendation

98%

95%

96%

Zoom
Alternate views
Ratings/ Reviews
Share
Color Change

89%
76%
74%
67%
64%*

90%
68%
58%
28%
60%*

86%
66%
50%
N/A

Link to Social
Networking Site

60%

N/A

57%*
N/A

Streaming Video
Product Demo
Blog

55%

N/A

N/A

36%

26%

10%

Source: 2009 e-tailing group Mystery

Shopping Survey
pg. 5

Reviews ranked in top 1/3 of

features; social via sharing
gains prominence

Source: 2009 e-tailing group Mystery

Shopping Survey
pg. 6

Many merchants are already

employing social tools on their
sites

Today 78% employ Facebook fan pages, 65% use customer

reviews,and 64% are publishing via Twitter
Source: 2009 e-tailing group Mystery
Shopping Survey
pg. 7

Why the consumer voice? Why

now?
The information about
products,
categories and brands available
online is growing exponentially
With so much content
available, consumers now have to
edit in order to make the right
shopping decisions for their
needs
Considerations relative to
trust come into play as more
social options exist for sharing
and gathering information
While the media fuels adoption
of new technologies, customers
will have the final say on which
merchants and information they
will ultimately trust
pg. 8

5 Social Shopping Trends

Shaping the Future of
Ecommerce
2010 Social Shopping Study Results

pg. 9

Survey
Methodology
In March 2010 PowerReviews and the etailing group fielded an online
questionnaire to over 1,000 consumers
(50% male/50% female) who shop online
four or more times annually, spending
over $250 via that channel.
Survey Objectives
Understand category-centric behavior relative to overall
trust and online shopping
Explore customer utilization of social media to assess
perception, interest, and propensity to buy based on
engagement with these newer tools
Trend customer reviews and social shopping monitoring
changing and evolving consumer behavior since the initial
jointly sponsored survey in 2007
Assess merchant perception relative to consumer interest
level in social media tools

10

pg. 10

5 Trends in Social
Shopping
1 Control rests with consumers

2 Research starts with search, but happens on

brand and retailer sites

3 Consumers expect social tools for their

research
experience, engaging mostly with the basics

4 Consumers seek a variety of voices throughout

the research experience

5 Facebook is the social platform for

researching/shopping

pg. 11

Control rests with

consumers

pg. 12

Online research puts the

consumer in control of the
research experience

Year-over-year the percentage of overall shopping that involves

researching products
online remains strong as currently 50% say it is a factor at least half
the time.
pg. 13

Most consumers satisfied with

available info

82% report being somewhat to very satisfied with information when

researching online
pg. 14

Personal research drives

confidence

83% are somewhat to much more confident about making a purchase decision when
they conduct their own research online vs. speaking to a salesperson in-store

pg. 15

And saves significant time

79% report saving somewhat to much more time doing their

own research online compared to more traditional in-store research
pg. 16

Most shoppers spend a

significant amount of time
researching

The time spent researching depends on shopper personality types but the majority
(60%) report spending a week or more researching an information intensive product
prior to purchase.
pg. 17

Research starts with search,

but happens on brand/retailer
sites

pg. 18

Search continues to be the starting

4
point
for research; social media not
top of mind

A majority of shoppers (57%) begin research with a search engine;

yet one-fifth choose either the brands site or a retailer.
pg. 19

Search is a conduit; research takes

place on brand and retail sites

Past search, retailer and brand sites were named as the top
places where shoppers will typically research products online.
pg. 20

Consumers expect social tools

pg. 21

The basics continue to be

important

Consumers expect social tools in the online shopping process, engaging mostly with
the basics.
pg. 22

Consumers are more engaged with

the #1 social tool, reviews

Compared to 2007, shoppers are reading more customer reviews to be confident judging
a product with people reading 8 or more up 77% over 2007 and 16 or more up 140%.

pg. 23

Consumers are taking more time to

research

Compared to 2007, shoppers are taking more time with people spending 10
minutes or more up 28% over 2007 and people spending a half hour or more
up 83%.
pg. 24

Consumers demand a more comprehensive

and credible review experience

pg. 25

Consumers seek a variety of

voices

pg. 26

Friends and likeminded

consumers are more influential
than experts

pg. 27

Consumers trust reviews to

corroborate other research/voices

pg. 28

Traditional ecommerce merchandising &

customer service also serve as a voice to
validate research

pg. 29

Facebook is the social

platform for
researching/shopping

pg. 30

After basic social shopping tools, Facebook

features show the most potential to inform
buying behavior

pg. 31

The driver of Facebook relevance

in social shopping is the
friend
voice
50 or fewer
friends
34%

pg. 32

Facebook provides an
opportunity for frequent
social engagement

pg. 33

The e-tailing group checklist for

facilitating trust
Think trust and the influence of all
merchandising and marketing programs
on how consumers will react and
respond
Ensure your site is a destination that
serves the information hungry shopper
well
Present a product page complete with
strong descriptions, in-depth usergenerated content, rich media and
recommended products
Nurture user-generated content and
present the whole picture to garner
the greatest trust among your customer
base

pg. 34

Social Commerce Success Plan

Developing your social commerce strategy

pg. 35

1. Build the
foundation for trust
1.Initiate the
conversation, focusing on
the fundamentals:
1. Customer reviews
2. Q&A

2.Eliminate factors that

degrade trust:
1. Focus on content volume
2. Present balanced
perspectives
3. Identify verified users

3.Minimize the friction

between engaging with

pg. 36

2. Make content easy to find

and consume
Findable through SEO
Easy to consume

pg. 37

through

3. Accelerate trust

Facebook Friends
Brand Experts

voice

the collective

People Like Me
Staff Experts

Community Experts
pg. 38

PowerReviews Social
Commerce Suite
Foundation

Findability

Focus on the #1 tools

with the greatest
impact on buying
behavior

Make it easy for

shoppers to find and
quickly navigate your
content

Collective
Voice

Give researchers
access to all of the
voices they trust in
one place

Retail Site
Customer Reviews + Q &A
Drives the highest
level of community
generated content
People like you
integrated into review
collection process and
display

In-Line SEO + Review

Display 2.0
Leverage customer voice
and long tail keywords by
making social content
searchable
Quickly summarize and add
credibility to content with
Review Snapshot & Review
Faceoff

People like you +

Facebook Like Button +
Brandshare
Turnkey integration of
3 most influential voices
into your site
Automatically display
content from likeminded
users, friends, and brand
experts
pg. 39

Whats next?

Social commerce
becomes Open commerce.

User content invigorates

the entire organization.
pg. 40

Q&A

pg. 41

Thanks for
coming.
To request a demo/social commerce
consultation:
webinar@powerreviews.com
To contact your speakers directly:
Lauren: lf@e-tailing.com
Pehr: pehr@powerreviews.com
To download a copy of this webinar, visit:
http://powerreviews.com/5trends

Also, dont forget to come see us at IRCE in

June!

Booth #628
pg. 42

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Confidential, p.
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