The Pros and Cons of 10 Social Shopping Trends, Part 1

In a session at this week's Shop.org 2010 Annual Summit in Dallas, Doug Mack, CEO of the private online sales site One Kings Lane, and Kelly Mooney, president and chief experience officer at the digital marketing agency Resource Interactive, teamed up to discuss 10 innovative concepts currently being deployed by retailers to help them increase marketing effectiveness, enhance customer experiences and harness social commerce. Both presenters offered pros and cons on the concepts, and the audience weighed in as well via their mobile phones. Here are the first five of the 10 concepts discussed, along with Mack and Mooney's takes on them: 1. Crowdsourcing. Mack discussed how outdoor goods e-retailer Backcountry.com uses the the concept of crowdsourcing — i.e., gathering comments about its brand and the brands it sells, and using that content as a merchandising tool. Backcountry.com offers paid social hubs to manufacturers that sell via the site so they can associate their goods with content uploaded by the Backcountry.com user community. Mack's take: "As a website targeted to passionate consumers — outdoor enthusiasts — the concept works well. But if you're selling a more commoditized product, not so much." Mooney's take: "This is an innovative, low-cost merchandising solution for the manufacturers, so I give it a thumbs up. But it's not real a showcase for the brand." 2. Interactive shopping. Next, Mack discussed how apparel and accessories specialty retailer Wet Seal has a real-time, interactive social shopping application on its site that enables visitors to instantly send an invitation to their friends on Facebook, AIM, Bebo and ICQ to shop together on the site. Friends browse together with an unobstructed same view, while they scroll, navigate and mark up the pages in a synchronized shopping experience. The technology platform is designed to break down one of the biggest barriers for online retailing — the inability for shoppers to quickly and easily get opinions from friends and family on potential purchases. Mack's take: "I give this a thumbs up. Being able to communicate with your friends while shopping is one of the last bastions of what makes shopping in-store great, and this application takes that concept and brings it online." Mooney's take: "I'm a huge fan of experimentation, and I give huge props to Wet Seal for leading this effort. It's found a way to integrate what its shoppers were already doing — texting and calling friends to talk about shopping — with the online experience." 3. EarlyBird. Mack discussed Twitter's EarlyBird program, which gave companies and advertisers the ability to promote exclusive offers via the @EarlyBird account. Some of the more successful promotions involved the likes of Disney, Virgin America and Moxsie. [Editor's Note: On Tuesday, Twitter COO Dick Costolo announced that it would shut down the @EarlyBird account as it re-evaluates the service.] Mack's take: "The idea of a Twitter-branded Groupon-type site is a good one, but I think Twitter needs to put more effort into developing partnerships and being able to offer decent promotions if it wants to hold anyone's attention." He also added that the program should have been more targeted and localized. Mooney's take: Despite its demise, "I still give it a thumbs up," Mooney said. "On a personal level, I had a good experience with EarlyBird in that it enabled me to easily learn about brands I didn't know about and it was simple to use. But it really was a lightweight solution. Twitter should have presented it as a test that it could learn from, and then change its strategy as it went along." 4. On-site conversations. The panelists then discussed the conversation page on Nordstrom.com, which brings together a series of stories, blog posts, style look books, Twitter feeds and Facebook links. Mack's take: "While Nordstorm has given the three C's — commerce, community and content — a shot here, the community isn't engaged. When I looked at it, the conversation thread was just barren. If you're going to launch a community, you must jump in headfirst, participate in the dialog and be transparent. I didn't see that here. The community has to be 100 percent authentic or it will just get hammered." Mooney's take: "Community is already taking place on other sites like Facebook; that's where the party is. Retailers should go where the party is. So, in my mind, this was an unsuccessful experiment and I give it a thumbs down." 5. Integrated, curated and crowdsourced content. The final example discussed was Burberry's Art of the Trench website, which shows everyday people wearing Burberry trench coats. Burberry invites photographers and trench coat owners to participate, and then chooses the best of the submitted shots to add to the site. Visitors can then comment on and share photos, with the site linking directly to Facebook Connect. Mack's take: "I love this site. Burberry is engaging its users with its brand, and by combining curated, professional content with crowdsourced content, the site has an attractive, high-end quality. In addition, the site is integrated with Facebook, making it easy for users to share their comments with their Facebook friends." Mooney's take: "This site has made Burberry cool. It's given street appeal and a hip attitude to a brand that normally has a stiff and proper English reputation. And it really makes users feel as though they're part of the brand, as opposed to the brand talking to them." She also noted the site has driven store sales: "There's been a 10 percent lift to Burberry stores since the site was launched." Check back next week as the final five trends are examined.

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The Pros and Cons of 10 Social Shopping Trends, Part 1

Melissa Campanelli

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