New Shortcut to reach Customers – Social Commerce

Aug 06

New Shortcut to reach Customers – Social Commerce

Customer Service, E-Retail, Retail Strategy Add comments

It is considered as a part of CRM but actually it will empower retailers to uplift their bottom lines. The new trend is here and it’s known as Social Commerce. It’s not long back when we heard about e-commerce and m-commerce, many retailers are still experimenting and evaluating these concept. And this Social commerce is an add-on to these previous concepts. In the market there is lot of buzz and talk about social commerce but some analysts are predicting that the concept will take over market by early 2011. But you can visualize some minor elements of social commerce even now like rating system on most shopping websites, customer’s testimonials and their blog hosted on retailer’s website etc.

Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang told CRM magazine about the past, present, and future state of the social Web, and he categorized it into five overlapping eras –

1. The era of social relationships: Beginning in the mid-1990s, people signed up for online profiles and connected with their friends to share information.

2. The era of social functionality:As it exists today, social networking is more than just a platform for “friending,” but one that can support a broader array of what Owyang calls “social interactive applications.” However, identities are essentially disconnected silos within individual sites.

3. The era of social colonization:By late 2009, technologies such as OpenID and Facebook Connect will begin to break down the barriers of social networks and allow individuals to integrate their social connections as part of their online experience, blurring the lines between networks and traditional sites.

4. The era of social context:In 2010, sites will begin to recognize personal identities and social relationships to deliver customized online experiences. Social networks will become the “base of operation for everyone’s online experiences.”

5. The era of social commerce: In approximately two years, social networks will be more powerful than corporate Web sites and CRM systems, as individual identities and relationships are built on this platform. Brands will serve community interests and grow based on community advocacy as users continue to drive innovation in this direction.

Click on Image to enlarge it

So you can see it was all started in mid 90’s and now we are seeing and new face of social networking. It still in nascent stage but due to this economic crisis and lower sales per store retailers are leveraging it to increase their sales and customer satisfaction. Many others are planning to implement it in near future and to reap profits out of it. As e-commerce is gaining ground among consumers, social commerce will definitely boost their experience and help retailers to gain customers insight.

For more basic info on Social commerce, please check:

http://regatech.blogspot.com/2009/08/social-commerce.html

-Prateek Katiyar

Source: CRM magazine & Forrester Research

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