Wednesday, June 27, 2012

A quick and dirty guide to social commerce

From: http://www.imediaconnection.com/article_full.aspx?id=31916

A quick and dirty guide to social commerce

Jim Nichols

Websites Posted on May 31, 2012

Social commerce is one of the hottest digital sectors. From the explosive growth of Groupon and Pinterest to the widespread implementation of social sign-on across brand and e-commerce sites, it's plain to see that many companies are scrambling to leverage social networks and influence in service of their business goals.

Booz and Company estimated that $30 billion in goods and services will be sold within social networks by 2015.

On-network sales are just a segment of the total range of services and vendors that comprise the "social commerce" segment.
The basic concept of social commerce -- that social influence and communication networks can be leveraged for business -- is nothing new. What is different today is that the explosive growth of social networks, coupled with the availability of connected tools within and outside of such networks, has given people even greater reach and influence over one another.
With so many social options available, it is critical that marketers take an objectives-based approach to evaluating and selecting social commerce tactics and partners for their businesses. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Understanding social influence

For millennia, people have been influenced by the ideas and actions of others. With the advent of social media, the number of people that we influence and that influence us has grown markedly. For example, without social media, a highly satisfied customer might evangelize your product to perhaps 10 people. With social media, that number can now easily exceed 100, or 1000, or 10,000. Further, the ability to measure and track social influence is dramatically increased by digital social platforms.

Photo: Hans Põldoja

The influence of a particular individual or institution varies -- this is based upon a number of factors. These factors include the:

Size of their overall network
Level of perceived expertise on a topic
Credibility of the person
Likelihood of amplification

It may sound complicated, but in reality it's all rather intuitive.

What do we mean by "social commerce?"

At its core, social commerce refers to the use of user contributions and interactions to help sell products and services.

Photo: PhotoSteve101

Ultimately, this means using social networks and media to help people become aware of options, consider their choices, make purchase decisions, and eliminate friction in the buying process. We all want to make better choices, and the process of gathering information to make those decisions can be made easier through our relationships with others.

The six types of social commerce solutions

There are a variety of categorization models available to "bucket" social commerce solutions and companies. The European agency SyZyGy developed an excellent categorization model for social commerce solutions and providers. Those who are looking for more than a top-line view of the category would do well to visit the site Social Commerce Today. I'm going to do my best to do it justice by providing a capsule summary of the market segmentation model, which classifies categories and companies into six groups:
Social ShoppingThe common denominator in this set of services is empowering people to simultaneously shop online with others. The category encompasses group buying (e.g., Groupon and Living Social), socially empowered shopping experiences (i.e., an online store using Facebook Connect to enable a richer and more interactive shopping experience onsite), stores within social networks (e.g., Facebook stores), group gifting (e.g., eBay's GroupGifts service), and social shopping portals such as Kaboodle.
Ratings and Reviews One of the most ubiquitous forms of social commerce, these services allow consumers to rate and leave comments about goods and services. The largest such platform is probably Amazon.com, which includes ratings and comments on virtually every item offered. While we often think about these as simple text based recommendations, services such as ExpoTV and Zuberance have expanded this category to include video and encourage recommendations.
Recommendations and RatingsThis category focuses more on recommendations for specific audiences, rather than universal availability -- social referral programs (e.g., Extole) fall squarely into this category. The key difference between these offerings and those in the previous category is that the recommendations group generally uses the personal networks of participants to spread the message, whereas the services in the previous category are available to any viewer.
Forums and CommunitiesForums and communities have been around almost as long as the internet itself. In the context of social commerce, these terms refer to brand-sponsored venues for the sharing of information. Examples might include a Mercedes Owners Club, or the American Express Open Small Business community. Here people organically share information and advice related to categories and products.
Social Media OptimizationThis category refers to the use of social media to drive more qualified traffic to an online sales environment. It encompasses using social for SEO, link building, offer and deal feeds, company news feeds, and other means by which links can be disseminated.
Social Ads and ApplicationsHere the focus is on socially empowered ad messages. The range includes socialized ads, social shopping apps, and remote catalogue or shopping units.

Evaluating social commerce options for your brand

In order to identify the best strategies and tactics, it can be helpful to start with a simple assessment focused on six key questions:
What are the business goals of this effort, and how will performance be measured? Selecting a platform should begin with a review of your goals and measures. Different platforms will be able to "move the needle" in different ways and to different degrees.
What channels are you trying to address, and what is their relative importance? Many products and services sell through a variety of channels. "Own" stores, online retailers, supermarkets, and department stores are just a few of the options. The set of channels you use should play an important role in determining the social commerce approaches you deploy.
Companies that sell goods primarily or exclusively online were among the first movers in social commerce, both because many of the tools were designed for online stores and because tracking the impact of social commerce on sales is easier when digital actions can be tied directly to specific purchases. Offline retailers and brands sold primarily in brick and mortar stores have generally been slower movers in social commerce, but that is changing. A great example is Procter and Gamble, which was among the first CPGs to incorporate social influence into its websites and other marketing experiences. Additionally, the company has experimented with intriguing new retail formats like Facebook stores in order to determine their potential impact.
What are the bottlenecks in your customer flow?The concept of a buying funnel -- the progression of consumers from awareness to purchase has driven marketing decisions for decades. Chances are the other elements of your marketing mix are already aligned to the greatest communications needs. If so, then the challenge of selecting the best social commerce tools is a relatively simple one. The needs of businesses change over time and the range of appropriate social commerce tools may change or expand over that time. For example, if your biggest problem was awareness and your first social tactics focus on that area, increases in awareness may shift your greatest marketing need to increasing conversion rates. A second social commerce tool -- like a review and ratings platform -- might then make a great deal of sense.
What aspects of the product or service are most important to prospects?Understanding the attributes that matter most to consumers is a critical step in making the right social commerce decisions. Ensure that the social commerce platform you choose has the "legs" to communicate the most important product information and attributes. Some tools like ratings offer the advantages of ease and universality, while others -- like video reviews and social shopping -- provide much richer platforms, but with perhaps less reach.

Final thoughts

Photo: Paul Bica

This is truly a fascinating new arena -- one that is thriving because of the "perfect storm" of new buying options, ubiquitous connectivity, and the explosion of social tools available.
As next steps, I suggest you talk to a few of the companies making news in the space. These companies can provide a great deal of color and granularity for the sectors in which they operate. I truly believe that there is a tool (or set of tools) out there for most brands, and that the first movers will reap tremendous benefits in the months and years ahead. Why not be one of them?

Monday, June 18, 2012

Facebook failing to deliver social shopping

Facebook fails to deliver on 'social shopping' this holiday season

Barney Jopson, David Gelles and April Dembosky

New York, San Francisco— Financial Times

Published Friday, Dec. 23, 2011 11:16AM EST

Last updated Friday, Dec. 23, 2011 6:11PM EST

Even as U.S. Christmas shoppers have spent a record number of dollars online this year, one of the biggest disappointments for some internet entrepreneurs has been a company that is otherwise hot property: Facebook.
Retail executives and consultants say Facebook has yet to take off as a retail platform, defying excited predictions that “social commerce” – jargon for shopping via social media sites – would be the next big thing.

Jonathan Johnson, president of Overstock.com, an online retailer, says: “I agree that the commercial aspect of social media is over-hyped and no one’s really caught that rabbit yet.”
Skeptics say social commerce was a rhetorical fad inflated by Silicon Valley self-belief. Advocates say it’s merely in its infancy and that someone will soon find the right combination of technology and temptation to make it work.
They have slapped the vague term “f-commerce” on the potential crossover between Facebook and shopping, but as retailers’ experiment with it, their options fall into three broad categories.
First, they can use Facebook as an advertising tool to draw customers to their own websites. Second, they can use it to gather data about shoppers and recommend products based on Facebook interests – as Overstock.com and Walmart’s Shopycat service are doing for gifts. Third, they can set up fully-functioning stores inside Facebook.
However, Kevin Ryan, chief executive of Gilt Groupe, an online fashion retailer, says there is less commerce on Facebook than many people had anticipated just nine months ago.
“It’s an extraordinary place where people go and connect with their friends,” he says. But “to date, they are not using it really to make concrete purchasing decisions and they are certainly not purchasing things on Facebook”.
On Cyber Monday, a post-Thanksgiving shopping day in the U.S. when retailers offer big online discounts, just 0.56 per cent of buyers were referred from social networks, according to IBM.
Facebook itself, which is due to float on the stock market in 2012, shows no interest in being a retailer. It is focused on advertising.
But it says 88 per cent of the top 200 internet retailers are “integrated” with its site and have seen traffic from Facebook increase by an average of 236 per cent from the holiday season last year.
Joel Bines, a retail consultant at AlixPartners, is skeptical: “It feels like flavour-of-the-moment ... It’s [growing] off a tiny base and very soon it’ll revert to the mean and be just another way of marketing to people.”
Only a few retailers have created genuine stores within Facebook, including Aéropostale, a U.S. teen clothes retailer; Asos, a UK online fashion store; and 1-800-Flowers.com.
Against a backdrop of privacy concerns, Jason Taylor of Usablenet, a software company that sets up such stores, says retailers run them off their own systems and do not share sensitive financial data with Facebook.
The theory behind f-commerce was that young people who spent hours on Facebook wanted as much of their lives to be there as possible – including shopping.
But there’s a hitch. “Consumers today are not looking at Facebook psychologically as a place where you go to buy things,” says Mr. Ryan of Gilt.
Mr. Taylor agrees: “When people are on Facebook they’re in sharing mode, not purchase mode. So the measure for success is not revenue through Facebook. It’s sharing of the brand and traffic.”
Facebook itself wants to draw advertisers’ attention to how its site can inspire shopping ideas – even though it’s impossible to pin down a causal link between, for example, one person clicking the “like” button on a Tiffany & Co. ring and a friend who noticed and a month later bought a Tiffany necklace.
Booz & Co., the consultancy, forecasts that social commerce in the U.S. will grow from $1-billion this year to $14-billion in 2015, but it uses a loose definition that includes purchases influenced by Facebook and product buys on daily deal sites such as Groupon.
Mr. Johnson of Overstock.com says: “We’re not trying to use it as a sales piece as much as an information-gathering piece. Finding out what our customers want; whether they like a product; how could we sell it better.”
Siva Kumar, chief executive of TheFind, said data gleaned from Facebook’s like button had helped him improve online searches by highlighting the most-liked products on the web.
While he acknowledged that social commerce overall hasn’t been very successful so far, he updated the optimistic forecast heard from others at the end of last year: “I expect 2012 is really the year that social commerce is going to take off … It’s like walk, crawl, run. The running should happen next year.”

Nearly alf of consumers will be social shoppers- Barclays

From: http://www.siliconrepublic.com/careers/advice/category/158-web/item/27348-nearly-half-of-consumers

Nearly half of consumers will be ‘social shoppers’ by 2021 – Barclays

23.05.2012

Nearly half of consumers will be ‘social shoppers’ by 2021 – Barclays

Sales from social commerce, driven by the influence of social media, are expected to more than double within the next five years, according to research from Barclays.

Research conducted by Barclays in the UK has found that the next generation of ‘social shopper’ could be a force to be reckoned with by 2021.
In this not-so-terribly-distant future, 41pc of the consumer population is expected to be influenced by or use social media to make a purchase. The figure is higher among 25 to 34-year-olds, expected to reach 73pc – which is unsurprising as 45pc of this group are already engaging in what Barclays have called ‘s-commerce’.

Recommendations and social influence

It’s estimated that around 70pc of online shoppers are also active social networkers, while websites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest have blurred the boundaries between retail channels. However, as of yet, social media is not a direct sales platform. It’s more of a referral channel where consumer sentiment can be gauged and influence purchasers. While people are generally on social networks to socialise, consumers on these sites are still quite receptive to new ideas, suggestions and recommendations, and therein lies an opportunity for retailers.
“When someone you know and trust makes a recommendation, it’s extremely powerful, and we’ve seen that the social shopper isn’t afraid to express online how much they want, love or dislike a product or service,” said Richard Lowe, head of retail and wholesale at Barclays. “This, in turn, creates a feedback loop on a product or brand. As more people post reviews, more people read them and give their own feedback, which is picked up by a new group of consumers. Retailers should be exploring ways to tap into these communities in order to create more personalised shopping experiences.”
This influential nature of social media is expected to translate into stg£3.3bn of sales in the next five years – more than double the current figure of stg£1.4bn – while direct sales are expected to rise from stg£210m to stg£300m. Fashion, footwear, music, film and grocery retailers are expected to see the most significant gains.

Home based start up costs

From: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/1918-home-based-businesses-startups.html

Most Home-Based Businesses Start for Less Than $5,000

9:03 AM ET |

By: Chad Brooks, BusinessNewsDaily Contributor

Jan 2012

Fuzzbones | Dreamstime.com

View full size image

A new report from CreditDonkey.comshows it takes less than $5,000 for most home-based business owners to get up and running.
The research, which details where small-business owners got their startup capital, found that while the average cost of starting a home-based business was $25,000, 39 percent of owners said it took less than $5,000, with another 25 percent not needing any startup financing at all.
According to the report, small-business owners needing money turned to a number of sources, such as:

Personal/family savings – 60 percent
Credit cards – 10 percent
Business loans from a bank – 7 percent
Home equity loan – 4 percent

In order to get up and running, CreditDonkey says there are several expenses entrepreneurs can expect to pay, including legal fees and licenses, marketing, supplies and equipment, insurance and professional and merchant services.

IDC report on home businesses and social networks

From: http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS23509012

IDC - Press Release

As Traditional Web Site Adoption Slows, Facebook and Other Social Networks Become Key Platforms for Home-Based Business Promotional and Commercial Activity Online, According to IDC

30 May 2012

FRAMINGHAM, Mass., May 30, 2012 – Since the 1990s, Web sites have provided a relatively inexpensive way for businesses to efficiently reach local and international prospects. Still, this basic form of online promotion continues to be perceived by many as difficult and costly to set up and maintain, and less than half of home-based businesses currently have a Web site. Seizing this opportunity, Facebook and others have made getting online less expensive and complicated than traditional Web site development; as a result, social platforms are becoming key enablers of the promotional and commercial activities of home-based businesses.

A new study from International Data Corporation (IDC) forecasts Web site ownership and online selling in U.S. full-time and part-time home-based business markets through 2016. In addition to presenting home-based business counts, promotional and commercial activities are discussed including the use of social networking, email marketing, search engine optimization, search engine marketing (SEM), Web site optimization for mobile devices, banner advertisements, and the use of ecommerce platforms including eBay.com, craigslist.org, and Amazon.com.

Key findings of this study include the following:

Of the approximately 27 million total businesses in the United States, roughly three in four were home-based businesses at the end of 2011.

Just over half of full-time home-based businesses currently have Web sites compared with less than 40% of part-time ventures.

Approximately 40% of home-based businesses use social networks to promote their businesses. Social networking is still more often used as a supplement to Web site ownership than a substitute for it, but roughly 20% of home-based businesses currently promote themselves on social networks and do not have a conventional Web site.

Nearly 40% of home-based businesses selling online do so without a Web site of their own, leveraging the high traffic of prominent destinations such as eBay, Amazon, craigslist, and other online marketplaces.

The home-based business market opportunity is significant for software engineers, app developers, and Web site resource providers, with a relatively modest percentage of home-based businesses with Web sites currently practicing search engine optimization (SEO) or optimizing their Web sites for mobile device browsers.

"Web sites have provided a relatively inexpensive way for businesses to efficiently reach local and international markets since the 1990s — and yet less than half of home-based businesses currently have them," said Justin Jaffe, research manager for Small/Medium-Sized Business and Home Business Research at IDC. "Social networks have made online promotion less expensive and complicated, and Facebook and other social networks will become increasingly key players in empowering the marketing and commercial activity of home-based businesses."

In U.S. Home-Based Business Online 2012–2016 Forecast: Assessing the Impact of Facebook on Web Sites and Commercial Activity Online (IDC #234951), forecasts Web site ownership and online selling as well as broadband Internet access and PC ownership in U.S. full-time and part-time home-based business markets through 2016. In addition to presenting home-based business counts, other topics discussed include promotional and commercial activities including the use of social networking, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), Web site optimization for mobile devices, and banner advertisements and the use of ecommerce platforms including eBay.com, craigslist.org, and Amazon.com. Additional details are available to IDC clients by request. Follow Justin Jaffe on Twitter: @justinjaffe..

About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,000 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. For more than 48 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. You can learn more about IDC by visiting www.idc.com.

From: http://smallbusiness.foxbusiness.com/technology-web/2012/06/01/social-networks-do-heavy-lifting-online-for-home-based-businesses/

Social Networks Do Heavy Lifting Online for Home-Based Businesses

By Ned Smith, senior writer at BusinessNewsDaily

Published June 01, 2012

FOXBusiness

Reuters

Social networks are becoming the go-to platform for online promotion and commerce for home-based businesses, a new study shows. Though websites have provided a relatively inexpensive way for businesses to efficiently reach prospects since the 1990s, many home-based business owners still believe that they are difficult to create and costly to set up and maintain. As a result, less than half of home-based businesses have a website.
By making getting online seemingly less expensive and complicated than traditional website development, social platforms

are becoming key enablers of the promotional and commercial activities of home-based business, according to an International Data Corporation (IDC) study assessing the impact of Facebook on websites and commercial activity online.
Of the approximately 27 million total businesses in the U.S., roughly 75 percent were home-based businesses at the end of 2011, IDC said.
[Most Home-Based Businesses Start for Less Than $5,000

]
Approximately 40 percent of home-based businesses

use social networks to promote their businesses, the study found. Social networking is still more often used as a supplement to website ownership than a substitute for it, but roughly 20 percent of home-based businesses currently promote themselves on social networks and do not have a conventional website.
In addition, nearly 40 percent of home-based businesses selling online do so without a website of their own, leveraging the high traffic of prominent online destinations such as eBay, Amazon, craigslist and other online marketplaces.
"Social networks have made online promotion

less expensive and complicated, and Facebook and other social networks will become increasingly key players in empowering the marketing and commercial activity of home-based businesses," said Justin Jaffe, research manager for small- and medium-size business and home business research at IDC.
Reach BusinessNewsDaily senior writer Ned Smith at nsmith@techmedianetwork.com

. Follow him on Twitter @nedbsmith.

Copyright 2012 BusinessNewsDaily

Importance of social media for digital retail

From: http://www.diamonds.net/news/NewsItem.aspx?ArticleID=40317

Digital Retail Study Underscores the Importance of Social Media

Jun 5, 2012 12:18 PM By Ricci Dipshan

Facebook

Twitter

RAPAPORT... The “2012 Social and Mobile Commerce” study, a joint research project by Shop.org, comScore, and The Partnering Group stressed the importance of social media for retailers since nearly two out of five online consumers follow retailers through social networking. The study found that social media space Pinterest has become a particularly big player in the social sharing game, with online U.S. consumers reporting that they already follow an average of 9.3 retail companies through that website compared with the average of 6.9 retailers they follow on Facebook and the 8.5 retailers they track via Twitter. Almost two out of five online consumers follow retailers through one or more social networking sites.

Shop.org's executive director, Vicki Cantrell, noted that, ''Pinterest has given retailers another channel to ‘listen’ to and interact with both existing and new customers, telling an ongoing visual story through images of their products and their brand ‘spirit', a story that customers can then tell again to their friends and family members.''

While Pinterest has grown into this space fairly recently, blogs, YouTube and Facebook still command the majority of consumers’ social activity. In particular, seven in 10 of those who follow a retailer’s blog click through to the website, and more than two-thirds of consumers use YouTube to browse and research a retail company.

The main reason consumers follow retailers on social media -- locate product promotions. The amount of consumers searching for these promotions, however, has dropped to 51 percent from 58 percent in the past year. Four in 10 consumer also say they look for product information on social media, while 36 percent want to post/read comments about merchandise or services. Additionally, around three in 10 consumers who follow retailers via social media say they are actively looking for information about events, current trends and ideas, or photos and videos, such as “how-to’s” and styling ideas, as well as expert opinions.

Consumers are also using their smartphones and tablet devices to connect to retailers via social media platforms. The survey found those with smartphones are most likely to use their device for social reasons, such as contacting friends and family about products they see and searching for items nearby, while tablets are more likely to be used to make purchases and comparison shop.

Specifically, nearly four in 10 smartphone owners who shop online say they use their smartphone to take pictures of products and more than one-third said they send the pictures of the products they see to friends, and text/call friends/family about specific products while shopping.

One-third of consumers who own smartphones also say they have shared their location with retailers. Location-based services, such as Groupon Now!, FourSquare and Facebook have effectively helped retailers instantly reach new and existing customers by targeting special offers, discounts and coupons to their mobile devices once they’ve “checked-in.”

The study found that men are more likely than women to share their location with a retailer (40 percent for males vs. 25 percent for females), and nearly half of those in the 18 to 34-year-old set say they have shared their location, compared to just around two in 10 of those in the age group of 35 to 54.

“For retailers, the possibilities are endless when it comes to enticing smartphone owners who may be within a few feet of their store or even already in the store, thanks to technology that lets shoppers who want to hear from retailers instantly interact with them,” said Jennifer Vlahavas, the senior director of comScore.

"And while check-in and store location functionality are already gaining popularity, retailers have only just scratched the surface of using location data to better serve their customers. In-store shopping maps and customized shopping lists are a few of the possibilities that will cater to the consumer," she said.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Multiply Transformations [updates]

This are some updates about the transformation of Multiply into an e-commerce site.

From: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/260742/economy/business/multiply-com-launches-new-dashboard-for-online-sellers

Multiply.com launches new ‘dashboard’ for online sellers

June 5, 2012 6:25pm

209 22 Email1 233

What used to be a social networking site, Multiply.com is now claiming to be a ‘social shopping’ hub for online marketing.

To provide online entrepreneurs with technology solutions, Multiply on Tuesday said it launched “Merchant Dashboard” to “do the dirty work” for online sellers.

“Through a Merchant Dashboard, sellers can easily view traffic trends and get a view of the most visited product listings, get an easy to digest sales report with status on all orders, and run even promos on their Multiply shops with a discount code creator,” Multiply said in a statement released on Tuesday.

The new platform likewise provides detailed product listing, inventory management, and order tracking.

To strengthen buyer confidence, Multiply installed a “Buyer Protection Program,” which provides reliable merchants with a ‘Trusted Badge.’

Aside from credit card payment, it also added other payment gateways such as Paypal, GCash, and over-the-counter payments at Banco de Oro, and Bank of the Philippine Islands.

“There seems to be reluctance on trade through the Internet due to a lack of accreditation and guarantees…” said Jack Madrid, Multiply Philippines country manager. “We wanted to retain the shopper-seller interaction while providing a simple and secure way to pay online.”

According to Multiply, the most transacted items online include gadgets and electronics, fashion apparel and accessories, shoes, cosmetics, digital cameras, mobile phones and accessories and even discount vouchers and tour packages.

Philippine online shopping is still in its infancy but there are strong growth trends in Internet usage among the upscale class under 30 years old who live in key cities like Metro Manila, Cebu and Davao, the social shopping website said.

Of Multiply’s 5.5 million users in the Philippines with, about 130,000 are online merchants.

“There are several e-commerce trends and opportunities that Filipinos need to bank on. In the future, we will see a more liberalized retail market that is borderless and certainly bigger,” Stefan Magdalinski, chief executive officer at Multiply Global, said in the same statement. —Rouchelle Dinglasan/VS, GMA News

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From: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/740376

Multiply.com Philippines Merchants Base Soars to 130,000 During First Year

In the Philippines, many small business owners are managing their own flourishing companies with the click of a button. And they’ve found a unique business partner to drive customers to their shops and make money: the Multiply Marketplace.

Albert Uy of Posh Living enthuses that he and his wife now own their time, thanks to Multiply’s Merchant stockroom that has automated the process of receiving orders and accepting payment.

Multiply will help you manage your time well because of the different features and the interface, and the free marketing mileage you get when placing your product in the Marketplace. It’s really a nice, efficient way to start your business

(PRWEB) June 05, 2012

In the Philippines, many small business owners are managing their own flourishing companies with the click of a button. And they’ve found a unique business partner to drive customers to their shops and make money: the Multiply Online Marketplace.
With its dedicated Philippine team to ensure a friendlier and more convenient online shopping experience for both sellers and buyers for over 5.5 million users and growing, the company’s merchant base has soared to 130,000 during its first year---officially making Multiply Marketplace the Philippines’ largest online social shopping destination which provides an easier, safer, and more exciting selling and shopping experience.
Virtual Biz for Real Rewards
A physical address for one’s business? A thing of the past. A lot of Multiply.com’s entrepreneurs have discovered that they can build and operate profitable businesses online, without ever having to give up their primary source of income.
Jane Iridale, owner of Sole Sister, a company which sells locally-made shoes targeted to young, stylish women, calls their breed “the young weekend entrepreneurs”, and praises the wonders of the site in assisting her kind: “Multiply will help you manage your time well because of the different features and the interface, and the free marketing mileage you get when placing your product in the Marketplace. It’s really a nice, efficient way to start your business.”
For Anne Brigitte Santos-Baluyot, proprietor of beauty products store Digital Traincase, Multiply’s new e-commerce features has enabled them to skip dated business processes altogether. “If not for Multiply, it would still be old school for us - Sending manual order forms, talking to clients every day… We won’t make money until after we talk to them, give them the payment instructions, the payment details… Now, people just click the add to cart button and then pay in an instant and it’s instant money for us.”
Albert, of home store Posh Living, also expresses appreciation for the highly efficient e-commerce platform. “When I got into Multiply, things became a lot easier. Our customers doubled—actually not just doubled, it’s more than quadrupled. We get a lot of unique hits a day, and a lot of repeat customers—and we get to spend more time with the family since we don’t join bazaars as much anymore.”
The Entrepreneur’s Enabler
As the dominant and unique Social Shopping destination in the Philippines, with thousands of shops and millions of product listings housed in a fully functional e‐commerce platform, Multiply connects shoppers and merchants in a convenient, fun and secure environment-- proving to be a powerful business enabler for aspiring entrepreneurs.
From its beginnings as a social networking site aimed at linking people with family and friends, Multiply.Com, led by its loyal community in the Philippines, organically evolved into a virtual marketplace with a network of over 5.5 million users.
With its upgraded e-commerce features, Multiply provides sellers the convenience to target the right products to their consumers, and takes over the selling process entirely.
“What we like about Multiply is that we can easily see what our customers are interested in,” says Albert. “It gives us a boost…we know which ones will sell.”
Anne adds: “I really don’t have talent in selling because I’m shy to approach people. I’m afraid to do sales pitches and get rejected. But with Multiply, I just post my items for everyone to see, and then they get to pick the products….I just post the pictures, the product description and the price and that’s it.”
Thanks to Multiply’s new Buyer Protection Program and several modes of payment (including credit card, Paypal, Gcash and over-the-counter bank deposits at all BDO and BPI branches nationwide) merchants are guaranteed smoother transactions with their shoppers. And because everything is virtual, store owners need not fret missing an opportunity to sell a product to their market---making it a truly flexible shopping experience for both buyer and seller.
Without the burgeoning numbers of merchants in the platform, the Multiply Marketplace is a testament that the Filipino entrepreneurial spirit is alive and kicking.

Interview with MULTIPLY CEO

This is a followup on the earlier articles about Multiply becoming an e-commerce community.

From: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/361669/netting-it-big-in-the-wild-west

Netting It Big In ‘The Wild West’

Social networking site Multiply has evolved from being an online venue for people to connect and interact with each other, into a powerful business enabler for aspiring entrepreneurs

June 11, 2012, 2:30pm

Stefan Magdalinski, global CEO of Multiply.

Social networking site Multiply is staging a renaissance.

What began in the mid- to late-2000s as an online venue aimed at linking people with family and friends has organically evolved into a thriving online marketplace when a growing number of members started using such features as photo sharing and advanced customization to create storefronts for their budding online businesses.Today, with a network of over 5.5 million users and over 106,000 storefronts across 16 product categories, Multiply has become the largest online marketplace in Southeast Asia and a powerful business enabler for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Interestingly enough, its loyal community of Filipino members led Multiply’s evolution. Upon its acquisition in 2010 by Naspers, a media conglomerate with a strong presence in South Africa, the company noted the number of growing members using the photo album feature to set up online shops. “Originally, doing commerce in the social network platform was against the Terms of Service (TOS), and when we realized that this was what people wanted to do with the platform, we decided to change the TOS and increased the focus on e-commerce,” shares Stefan Magdalinski, global CEO of Multiply.com.

Empowering Entrepreneurship

When asked what made Naspers decide to acquire Multiply among other social networking sites in the Internet today, Magdalinski shares that Multiply fits Naspers’ philosophy of investing in emerging markets. “When we’re looking for companies to invest in, we’re not like venture capitalists who invest in the very early stages of business. We look at a business that has a good idea [behind it] that’s gaining traction in emerging markets, and if we invest in it, we can make it grow a lot faster,” he explains.

What Multiply is doing now, “and what I’m going to continue,” Magdalinski shares, “is a process of keeping all the social networking features that members love but also making it the best platform in the world for people to run a small business on.” With upgraded features for both shoppers and merchants, Multiply users can now enjoy the convenience of a virtual shopping cart that enables them to shop from multiple merchants and pay in a single check-out transaction.

Security issues are addressed via the Buyer Protection Program, which guarantees purchases from Trusted merchants. “Anyone can sign up in Multiply to open a store, but if you sign up, we do some vetting on the business to give us more information about you,” explains Magdalinski. Once verified, he adds, a merchant will be awarded a trusted seller badge. “There are more stringent controls in place,” he assures.

Competition

In ‘The Wild West’

According to Magdalinski, his new post as global CEO of Multiply feels, in some ways, like going back to his roots. “I come from the U.K. and I was involved in the early days of the Internet there—the early days of e-Commerce, and this market (Southeast Asia) is still very much about getting people to transact online for the first time. And that requires delivering a different kind of site and experience from someone who’s making their fiftieth or hundredth online purchase. Here [in Southeast Asia] it needs to be much more about building trust,” he shares.

With a market that’s far from reaching saturation, Magdalinski says that going head to head with other e-commerce websites is not an issue—yet. “It’s the wild west out here,” he says. “It’s the very early days and there’s a huge market opportunity for all the players. In a few years time, when the market gets saturated, then we’ll all start competing with each other for the same audience. But now, for all players, it’s really about growing the market,” he explains.

What e-Commerce players are really competing for, Magdalinski asserts, is a share in people’s disposable income. “I tend to look at competition in a bigger picture, because when you look at the Philippines where about one percent of all commerce is done on the Internet, and I’m worried about competing [with another company] for a share of that one percent, I’m leaving 99 percent on the table,” he says.

Multiply’s current agenda is just to deliver a seamless online buying experience that will get users to keep coming back. “E-commerce is really simple—it’s all about price, selection and convenience; and as a company, we have to address these aspects,” Magdalinski states. “Price and selection is easy,” he adds, “because they’re very straightforward. Everybody wants prices to be cheaper so you want to make them as cheap as you can without getting [your business] into trouble. And everybody wants more selection so that’s also very easy—you just have to attract the right kind of merchants who are selling in areas where you have gaps,” he says.

Convenience is where it gets complicated, and is also where Magdalinski believes all the competition will eventually happen between commerce players. “This makes up the user’s experience, which covers how good your checkout, payment methods and delivery are, how you make it easy for them to repurchase, etc., and a big part of that is really building trust,” he says, “so as a company, it’s about making sure that we do a better job at all those components than the competition.”

With the e-Commerce market expecting to grow at more than 40 to 50 percent per year, Magdalinski says it is essential that Multiply’s year-on-year growth exceeds that number. “Given how fast people are joining the Internet, growth in itself is not enough. Because if the market is growing at 40 percent per year, and you’re growing at 20 percent, you’re still losing market share. So,” he concludes, “you have to be outstripping everybody else.”

Fashion Adds Fuel to eCommerce

From: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1008919

Fashion Adds Fuel to Fast-Growing Retail Ecommerce Sales

MARCH 22, 2012

2011 brought bigger-than-expected growth to a maturing market

Online buying in 2012 has expanded far beyond early-adopter favorites like books, music and video. While sales of such ecommerce staples continue to grow, the apparel and accessories category—a product type for which shoppers’ desire to touch, feel and try on items before making a purchase was long seen as a deterrent to online sales—is now climbing faster than any other ecommerce product segment.
eMarketer expects US retail ecommerce sales to reach $224.2 billion this year, up 15% from 2011, as online sales continue to record strong growth despite a slowing penetration rate for US online shoppers and buyers that in 2011 topped 80%. (Note: These figures exclude travel and ticket purchases, but include sales made on mobile devices and tablets.)

The apparel and accessories category will lead ecommerce sales growth throughout the forecast period, with sales gains of 20% predicted for this year. By 2016 the category will tally $73 billion worth of online purchases, eMarketer estimates, accounting for just over 20% of all US online retail ecommerce sales.
The category’s sales gains are attributed primarily to retailers’ improved methods for displaying products online, as well as policies that make online purchasing of apparel, in particular, less of a guessing game.
“Online merchandising and visualization have come a long way,” said eMarketer principal analyst Jeffrey Grau. “Retailers continue to increase the scale of their ecommerce operations, particularly by investing in online sales platforms that display products and convert shoppers more effectively; apparel sales have benefitted more than any other category. Apparel has become an online success due largely to easy and free returns, innovative visualization tools and the presence of customer reviews.”

Even with apparel and accessories’ growth, however, computers and consumer electronics remains the largest single category of online spending. The tech-focused product segment will grab a nearly 22% share of ecommerce sales this year and continue to grow as a percentage of the annual total through 2016. On the other end of the spectrum, online food and beverage sales will grow 17% in 2012, but remain the smallest US ecommerce category with expected sales of just $5.09 billion in 2012.

eMarketer forms its US retail ecommerce forecast through a meta-analysis of research estimates from firms that track ecommerce sales, data from its benchmark source, and reported revenues from major online retailers. eMarketer also conducts interviews with industry executives who provide perspective on the ecommerce sales trends. eMarketer benchmarks its retail ecommerce sales figures against US Department of Commerce data, for which the last full year measured was 2011. This is the first year eMarketer has also broken out online sales by product category.

The importance of Pinterest as a traffic buider for e-commerce sites is discussed here.

A few things that jump out about the nature of Pinterest as a social commerce site are:

Curation- Social shopping/social commerce sites like Pinterest act as social custodians for fashion. In the same way, blogshop owners also act as fashion custodians as they assemble stocks for sale that is based on their personal tastes and expertise in the field. It refers to their role in SELECTING a collection that is aligned with customer tastes. So blogshop owners replace retail buyers, eg the big fashion retailers like MNG. Unlike commodified/predictable goods like books and music/CDs, fashion is a subjective which allows curators like BS a social curation role. So social commerce sites like Pinterest and BS are replacing traditional retail as curators, according to this article.

Browsing and shopping- Browsing online = window shopping which combines with purchasing to form SHOPPING. Browsing is a social activity, and thus the social shopping aspects of it are highlighted, eg discovery, sharing, recommending, etc.

Click-out or purchase in- this is the dilemma facing social commerce, just as we see it happening with Facebook stores.

From: http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/16/social-commerce-pinterest-and-the-future-of-fashion-retail/

Social Commerce, Pinterest And The Future Of Fashion Retail

Leo Chen

posted yesterday

Editor’s note: Leo Chen is a former product manager at Amazon and is currently the co-founder of Monogram, an iPad fashion discovery and shopping app funded by 500 Startups. You can find Leo on Twitter @leoalmighty.
Death of brick-and-mortar retail
Andrew Chen recently recommended a video to me, which inspired this post. It’s a keynote by Ron Johnson, the CEO of JC Penney and the man behind Apple’s retail revolution. In the video, Johnson spoke about the history of the department store and why JC Penney has fallen behind.
It wasn’t very long ago that stores like JC Penney, Nordstrom, and Gap were the pinnacles of fashion retail. These retailers provided better products at unbeatable prices. Retail buyers acted as personal curators for customers and the in-store experience was exceptional.
Then came e-commerce. Predictable products like books, CDs, and electronics drove the first wave of e-commerce for e-tailers like Amazon. But fashion lagged behind. Consumers want a tactile, in-person experience when it comes to garments. They need to touch and try it on. Even as e-tailers offered lower prices, consumers preferred to shop in stores.
That all began to change when Zappos came along with free shipping and returns; customers are encouraged to order multiple sizes and colors, try on the items in the comfort of our homes and return what we don’t want. For free. Coupled with better product visualizations (large images, multi-angle views – see Warby Parker and MyHabit), consumers are increasingly turning to the web for their fashion needs.
‘Apparel and accessories’ is projected to be the leading category in e-commerce in the US over the next 5 years.
But soon, online retailers will also become less relevant
The bar for e-commerce is rising every day: great visuals and free shipping are fast becoming commoditized. If product, price and service are the same, consumers will grow indifferent towards the seller.
Retailers still drive marketing, supply chain and distribution for designers and brands, but how long before brands figure this out themselves? Social curation and discovery tools like Pinterest and Fancy are leveling the playing field for retail marketing; Amazon is disrupting supply chain and fulfillment (more on this next).
So why are we still shopping at a handful of our so-called “favorite stores”? Because the internet has a noise and discovery problem. I believe that’s where the next wave of fashion tech innovation will take us.
Pinterest
Pinterest has found an optimal balance between aspirational browsing and shopping. Social shopping is more about discovery, conversations and relationship building, something that’s apparent in the way Pinterest users interact.
As Pinterest evolves, they will focus more on monetization and driving direct commerce. They have already experimented with affiliate links and the Rakuten investment is a strong hint at direct commerce. Here’s what I predict Pinterest might do next (purely speculative, of course):

Branded pages for brands, stores and boutiques
- There’s already evidence that Pinterest users spend more money than Facebook users.
- Pinterest could compete directly with Facebook pages by offering brands a better way to showcase products with access to a higher quality audience.
Integrated/Universal checkout
- If users are already discovering products through Pinterest but going off to merchant sites to transact, Pinterest should own that transaction and offer a consistent user experience.
- For smaller retailers and boutiques, Pinterest could integrate, acquire or build their own version of Shopify and let merchants sell directly on the Pinterest platform.
- For large retailers and brands, Pinterest will have to form partnerships and integrate with retailer payment systems: essentially selling products on Pinterest, and having the retailer drop ship inventory. Retailers may resist this initially because Pinterest will effectively render the merchant less relevant.
- Brands will be more inclined to work with Pinterest because they see it as an effective distribution channel. Brands can ultimately skip the retailer if they can get distribution through Pinterest. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) solves the logistics challenges — brands can simply ship inventory to an Amazon warehouse and have Amazon handle fulfillment. Consumers get the added benefit of Amazon Prime.
Create an e-commerce channel
- To mitigate the risk of disrupting (and irritating) current user, Pinterest will likely create a separate shopping channel if they decide to focus on commerce (e.g.shop.pinterest.com).
- This shopping channel will be product and commerce focused. You won’t find the cute puppies and fortune cookie quotes here, but you can bet Pinterest will leverage all your data for targeting.

Challenges Pinterest will face
As Pinterest scales, the biggest challenge will be surfacing signal buried in noise. It’s the Facebook Newsfeed problem, but much more difficult because of its focus on fashion and other tastemaker products.

Facebook is about people, so to make my newsfeed relevant it has to factor in the quality of my relationships. Who am I closer friends with, who is my family, which fan pages do I interact with most, etc. This is easy because we give Facebook that information every time we look at a friend’s photos, like a status update or comment on a post. Facebook doesn’t care what content we interacted with; it only needs to know who produced that content.
Fashion and other tastemaker products (e.g. home decor) are highly subjective, which means that I don’t necessarily like the same clothes or sofas as my closest friends. If I like a picture of a cute puppy my friend pinned, doesn’t mean I share his taste in fashion. Aside from existing Pinterest categories, they will have to find ways to add deeper tags on the products pinned (e.g. brand, color, style, season, fabric, patterns, etc…) to accurately target.

What’s next in fashion tech?
To date, most fashion tech companies are more commerce than tech. If you look at Gilt and Fab, they’re primarily commerce companies built on fairly standard e-commerce backends with some slight twists. It’s hard to drive disruptive innovation when your KPI is revenue.
In order to fundamentally change the way people shop, we will need teams with fashion experts, product visionaries, deep technical horsepower and growth hackers. It’s a hard combination to find, especially when most hackers in the valley shlep around in jeans and t-shirts — they’re not their own target user.
What will online fashion shopping be like in the future? I believe today’s multi-browser-tab search and filter behavior will feel as ancient as printed maps and yellow pages are today.
When I have a specific purchase in mind:

I picture myself telling Siri that I’m looking for some sneakers as I’m driving home from work.
When I get home, sink into my couch with my iPad or turn on my Apple TV, I’m shown pages of sneakers specifically curated for me, in my size.
I choose a few that I like, tap buy, and the shoes show up the next morning on my doorstep.

When I’m in the mood to browse:

I’m shown the latest collections and recommendations from my favorite designers, fashion bloggers and influencers (without having to search and filter on multiple websites).
Upcoming designers are recommended to me based on my style and preferences. Some of these recommendations are computer generated, some are handpicked by designers or personal stylists.
I won’t just be browsing product photos as I do on nordstrom.com today, it will be an interactive experience with inspiring looks, runway videos and beautiful images. Like Tom Cruise’s command center in Minority Report, except I am surrounded by Prada, Varvatos & Converse.
I can’t tell the difference between product and advertisement because everything can be purchased with a tap or a drag.
If I order by 11am, products will be at my doorstep by 6pm same day (Amazon already does this in China).

Welcome to the future.

Mike MacMillan

Just a simple question.. Why does the next great retail tech have to be online? Especially given bricks and mortar still account for 90ish percent of retail sales still! Who's to say one or more of the players in the world's largest private industry "retail" won't defend the store as the place to shop? After all the tech in the store for apparel at least is moving just as fast if not almost as fast as online concepts. Just go to one of the retail tech shows and there is some pretty cool tech lining up to defend the product on a real shelf or hanger. Apple has a greater return per sq foot than Tiffany and if we are being honest for a tech company they do real world retail experience the way it should be - and with people no less.

Reply · 7 · Like · Follow Post · 20 hours ago
Jason Smith · Subscribe

True. I think perhaps that as people flock to sell their wares online to avoid the expense and risk of a physical retail store, the people that are left doing retail well will become more valuable. And if you can offer both, and you present customers with the credibility and accountability of retail with the convenience of online you are in for a win.

Reply · Like · 12 hours ago
Ted Rheingold · Subscribe · Top Commenter · VP Social at SAY Media

Nice work with Monogram. I'm a 500 Mentor and I look forward to talking.

I thought I'd add the your history omits catalogs, which were pretty much ecommerce for a century and boutiques which are just as popular now as they were 30 years ago.

I see the same future you do on commerce. One of the many technologies needed along with universal shopping cart and voice interface is 3D sizing. (imo 2D sizing will never be good enough). Most women really want to know how an item will fit over their unique physiques. So stew shopping will have an advantage until then. Forany others shopping is a way to relax or spend time w friends. For others it's a way to know they're buying the current style or getting outfits that match.

I agree many catalog/ecommerce people will adopt more complete and easier online buying experiences, but those who shop in person will be harder to get.

Reply · 3 · Like · Follow Post · Yesterday at 6:42am
Christine Lu · Subscribe · Top Commenter · 336 subscribers

...the hard part about 3D sizing isn't technical. It's emotional and psychological. It's such a buzz kill to have a 3D version of me trying on clothes because it's like holding up a mirror to me and reminding me that i don't look at all like the size 0 models. Too much truth up front during the purchase decision can suck. :)

Reply · 10 · Like · Yesterday at 11:24am

Eric Hth · Subscribe · Paris, France

Chrisine: i agree! women have to feel the clothes... not only look at it (3d or 2d don't matter that much) but touch it and try it so the cloth can be kind of a part of themselves!

Reply · Like · 19 hours ago

irwinsybil15655843 (signed in using yahoo)

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Reply · Like · 14 hours ago
Kevin Leong · Berkeley, California

Why "death of brick-and-mortar retail"? Social commerce and/or Pinterest-style presentation is making online shopping more interesting. I see Fab, One King Lane (and perhaps Monogram too) are taking business away from traditional e-commerce websites, such as jcpenny.com, target.com, walmart.com and amazon.com. I think the opportunity is providing local businesses and brick-and-mortal retailers a platform to run flash sales online - in Pinterest-style presentation.

Reply · 2 · Like · Follow Post · Yesterday at 5:58am
Leo Chen · Subscribe · Co-Founder/CEO at Monogram

Death is an exaggeration, 90% of retail still happens offline. I'm just making the point that brick-n-mortar will become less relevant and eventually the economics will have to change to support their infrastructure costs. Everything is cheaper online so brick-n-mortar will become more like showrooms. If we can feel the product in stores, then buy online, physical stores will become too expensive to operate (unless brands subsidize these "showrooms"). Amazon's price check app is just a teaser for what's to come: http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/12/14/amazon-price-check-may-be-evil-but-its-the-future/

Reply · 1 · Like · Yesterday at 6:49am
Nikita Tovstoles · Co-Founder & CTO at Ecorebates Inc

I am really surprised by the last two bullets under "Integrated/Universal checkout" - essentially "Pinterest interfaces with consumer, large retail just drop-ships". Especially since you're an ex-Amazon PM. Can you really see Amazon signing up for this scenario - being a drop-shipper and giving up customer relationship to Pinterest? That's exactly the sort of relationship that most manufacturers have with retailers today. And not a happy one...

Reply · 1 · Like · Follow Post · Yesterday at 6:13am
Leo Chen · Subscribe · Co-Founder/CEO at Monogram

In this scenario, Pinterest will need a payment system to complete the cycle. What better way to collect payment than integrating with Amazon Checkout, especially if many retailers are already letting Amazon handle their fulfillment? If Pinterest can drive significant transactions, I wouldn't rule out an acquisition by Amazon either.

Reply · 2 · Like · Yesterday at 6:39am

Eric Hth · Subscribe · Paris, France

Leo: i totally agree with you a integrated payment system could significantly improve conversion since it would bring trust to every purchase (thanks to pinterest very strong brand image ) and that would offer amazing amazon's one click frictionless shopping

Reply · Like · 19 hours ago

Bazaart

Thanks for an insightful post Leo - I found it accurate and on the spot.
Amazon or Apple - those are my two bets for Pinterest acquisition.
So excited to read your description of the ideal fashion-tech start-up team! at Bazaart (www.bazaart.co), we are all that plus a community manager extraordinaire...

Reply · 1 · Like · 15 hours ago
Cindy Smith Engstrom · Works at Sircle Samples

This completely misses how the millennial shops = need more social in here. The mall will always exist but more like the vision Macy's has recently painted: smaller spots with 1 size of each so that the tactile needs and social needs are still met while driving down operating costs for retailers (product shipped after try on).

Reply · 1 · Like · Follow Post · 11 hours ago
Christopher Ciabarra · Subscribe · San Francisco, California

I agree the future of shopping will be exactly this little shops where you try stuff on and everything ships to your home! There will always be brick and Mortar shops until virtualization is reality but that is years away.

Reply · Like · 11 hours ago
Andy Lenney

Great article. Also check out www.Fashionoko.com, a new p2p social fashion marketplace (live but not launched) which uses social networks to personalise the shopping experience and incorporates many the elements you refer to in your article as "the future". E.g. It uses Pinterest, which offers a fantastic platform to showcase listings and is perfect for all things fashion.

Reply · 1 · Like · Follow Post · Yesterday at 5:44am
bnkausik (signed in using yahoo)

Price and product will never be the same across retailers as you claim. High volume drives low pricing and small retailers cannot get the same prices as the largest ones. Furthermore, smaller retailers suffer higher marketing costs as a percentage of sales.

Reply · 1 · Like · Follow Post · Yesterday at 7:31am
Laurie Sukis Borland · Writer at Technorati

Calling all fashion buyers who want to get knee deep in tech and start building the next fashion e-platform...I've got a great new idea for a start up.

Reply · 1 · Like · Follow Post · 22 hours ago
Nicholas Marx

I disagree with a portion of the article, and have an alternative vision for the future of fashion retail. I think the future of fashion retail will be dominated by customization and bespoke items made by independent craftsmen. As they did a time ago, tailors, cobblers, and jewelers, will once again be the kings (and queens) of fashion manufacturing and retail. But this time with a modern twist!

Collaboration between maker & wearer will be ubiquitous and even the standard. You''ll be able to tap into the minds of the actual makers from all over the world about how all the different materials and styles can be configured to best fit your own body and personality right from your own computer or mobile device. You will truly be the one & only muse for the design of the things you wear. What's more is this will be on a global and ...See More

Reply · Like · Follow Post · 7 hours ago
Madhu Jannapureddy · Subscribe · Johns Hopkins

Leo, great post! I think you are one 100% correct that the current models of advertising and commerce are ripe for massive disruption. Your thoughts on Pinterest's future are quite insightful. I wonder, however, if Facebook might already be better equipped to outdo everyone in this space.

The Facebook platform extends across almost every corner of the internet. They have also curated nearly a billion identity profiles. Furthermore, Facebook already has the ability to allow for one-click purchasing (mostly just used in games right now). Rather than trying to monetize in the traditional way with ads, I could see Facebook moving to a system allowing for once click purchasing, recommending, or gifting of goods and services across the internet. The advertising is already being done by its user base in the form of Likes and Sharing,...See More

Reply · Like · Follow Post · Yesterday at 6:10am
Abdullah AlShalabi · Top Commenter · Kuwait City

Amazing article, one of the best written in this space. I just want to add some more insight. my friends and I interviewed 30 people from all over the world about their shopping habits both online and offline, and get the following:

- Handbags and accessories are more common to be bought online because you don't need to fit on them.
- Shoes are also common because once you know your size from a certain brand, you'll usually get the size right.
- Swimsuits, lingeries and underwear is also more convenient to buy online, since its much more convenient to try them at home than in a store.
- However, for cloths its more complicated, you need to try them to see how do they fit, the cut of the piece is different for each new design and your weight changes all the time. Its true that an easy return policy might solve the problem, but its always tricky.

Another takeaway is that girls loves shopping for cloths as apposed to boys. Shopping for men is a headache, but for girls is like going to Disney Land. That's why I believe that men will make a bigger and faster shift to online cloths shopping than girls. In short we will see mens brick-and-mortar cloths shops die first, girls shops (the bigger chunk of apparel shops) will come later.

My friends are trying to build something in this field, please be one of the first to try it www.mybuyfriends.com. I just left the startup, but my friends are still there building something amazing.

Reply · Like · Follow Post · Yesterday at 9:05am
RJ Russell

MyBuyFriends? What is it? Is it only for Kuwait?

Reply · Like · 14 hours ago
Norb Winslow · Works at Blogger

Thanks for your article! I have used pinterest on my website and the result was great, it jumped from #124 to #3 in just 3 weeks time.

The key is we must got our website pinned and repinned by many people, which is the hardest part. Most of pinterest users won't doing repin when they aren't like what we pinned.

I do simple thing to outsource it on fiverr and got my site pinned by 75 people, I don't know how can he did it just search by typing pinterest on fiverr and you will find it on the TOP. Many other seller offer pinterest service on fiverr but in my experience they can't make my website increase in SEO. I don't know why.

Benefits of Pinterest for SEO:
1. Once our website pinned it has backlinks counts.
2. You need to ping the links of your pins to the to get your website increase in SEO.
3. Even though Pinterest does not support anchor text (except the url link), it's still perfect for placing our keywords in description.

Reply · Like · Follow Post · 18 hours ago
Richard Altman · 40 years old

department stores will become to pinterest etc what movie theaters are to netflix, an unduplicatable experience that, guess what, is also a really nice warehouse, think costco, BUT MORE (fuck), what kind of more? how about a real 21st C incentivization combining Air Miles style points, idiotic mayor shit badges and potentially algorithmically relevant OTHER SHIT ONLY AVAILABLE WHEN YOU VISIT THE FUCKING STORE.

Reply · Like · Follow Post · 9 hours ago
Justin DiPietro · New York, New York

This was a great post as it is directly relates to what we are building over at SaleMove. The experience at a physical store with attentive sales people will be moved online. However, the great thing about moving it online is you can innovate far past the in store experience, driving up customer satisfaction along with conversion.

Reply · Like · Follow Post · 10 hours ago
Dearrick Jay Knupp · Subscribe · CEO and Founder at Shop My Label

Much of what is written about, from peer to peer curation and affiliate marketing resulting in commissions up to 10 percent to the cross-brand universal cart is currently available on shopmylabel.com, launched just one week ago. With retailers such as Saks 5th Avenue, A/X Armani Exchange, Jessica Simpson representing the 32 retailers currently signed.

Reply · Like · Follow Post · 23 hours ago
Jewel Declare Hru

The beauty of Pinterest has been that it makes the sharing of dreams such as the perfect dress or heels accessible to average users. The entertainment value is crowd centered. At this point it's hard to have a voice on Pinterest because of its growth. I suggest that people make their own pinterest style sites and link to Pinterest. this way you can make your own terms of service and stand out more. I run pinclones.com by the way.

Reply · Like · Follow Post · Yesterday at 5:33am
Tom Benson · Top Commenter

Mmmm....one of the key parts of e-commerce is the "entertainment value". Groupon, Gilt City, etc are popular to a large extent because they are funny or exciting. Shopping as an adventure.

You said "it will be an interactive experience with inspiring looks, runway videos and beautiful images." Would like to think about how that can work.

Reply · Like · Follow Post · Yesterday at 5:26am
Jasmine Soh

Great article. Also checkout www.marqueed.com. Its a tool to discuss photographs but leverages the easy of image acquisition like Pinterest does.

Reply · Like · Follow Post · 9 hours ago
Mike Gauthier

I would add styleowner.com to the list.

Reply · Like · Follow Post · Yesterday at 7:39am
Roger Dalens · Erasmus University Rotterdam

Interesting article, essentially argueing Pinterest should move towards recent start-up Favour.it (http://favour.it). Let's see whether the cat-lovers are willing to have their sharing site transformed to a social shopping site :)

Reply · Like · Follow Post · 21 hours ago
Katharina Kahler · Subscribe

I work on a project " Models in Motion" that is a comedy TV series, where in fictional format designers are presented with their works on catwalks and in photoshootings, build around the story of the four Models Jenny, Lisa, Carola and Melanie and their friendship in Paris. I want to create a multimedia platform with KULTLABEL. Under this label the designers can sell their products, which are shown on TV directly. For the platform I want an I-pad application. This is my vision for the future of fashion shopping. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Models-in-Motion/76759051577

Blogshops Project

Wednesday, June 27, 2012