State of the Media Reprt Social Media 2012

This is the 2012 social media report by Nielsen, accompanied by summaries:

http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/social/2012/

http://www.internetretailer.com/social-media-guide/?cid=2013-Social-Media-300-Article

http://www.internetretailer.com/2013/01/03/leaders-social-commerce-are-not-usual-suspects 

The leaders in social commerce are not the usual suspects

Internet Retailer’s Social Media 300 reveals that smaller web-only merchants are beating out Amazon and Wal-Mart in social media marketing.

Stefany Moore

Research Analyst

Topics: Amazon, Coastal Contacts, e-commerce, Fab.com, Facebook, Jason Goldberg, King Arthur Flour, marketing technology, PetFlow.com, Pinterest, retail chains, ROI Revolution, Second 500, site traffic, social commerce, social media, Social Media 300, Top 500, Twitter, Wal-Mart, web only retailers, YouTube

Here’s what the leaders in social media marketing and commerce look like: they are small to mid-sized web-only merchants, relatively new to online retailing. They are putting social media at the forefront of their business strategies. And they are growing fast as a result.
The Social Media 300, Internet Retailer’s new publication available today, is a comprehensive analysis of e-retailers’ social commerce strategies and a first-ever ranking of retailers’ social skills based on the percentage of web site traffic merchants receive from social networks—a key measure of how effective e-retailers are at social media marketing and commerce.
The research shows that merchants don’t need to have large staffs or big budgets to be successful in social media marketing. Quite the opposite, in fact, as nine of the top ten retailers in the guide brought in less than $30 million in online sales in 2011.

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Social is a key cog to Fab.com’s success

Merchants at the top of the Social Media 300, like pet food supplies retailer PetFlow.com (No. 1), design-inspired flash sale newcomer Fab.com (No. 2) and baking flour maker and e-retailer King Arthur Flour (No. 6), are generating significant returns by making social media a priority. They are adept at weaving social connections into many aspects of the shopping experience, and have found innovative ways to find new customers via social networks and then to connect with these and existing customers on a personal level.
“We’re really trying to build customers for a lifetime, and social is a way for us to do that,” says Fab.com founder and CEO Jason Goldberg.
What the Social Media 300 documents is how these social media strategies drive traffic and sales. PetFlow.com, brings in 30% of its total site traffic and overall revenue from social networks—mostly as a result of a laser-like focus on building a maintaining a loyal Facebook fan base and regular posts that speak to their followers’ inner pet lover.
Fab.com has made social media a key component of its business strategy from the beginning—most notably with cash rewards for sharing its products on social networks and a custom-built social feed that alerts visitors to Fab.com of who’s buying, sharing or liking its products at any time. The merchant gets 25% of its site traffic and around-one third of its sales directly from consumers who click to the site from online social networks.
For eyewear retailer Coastal Contacts Inc. (No. 3), sales from social networks comprised an estimated 5% of sales last year, a substantial sum for a web retailer that generated $177 million in sales online in 2011.
Many of the leaders in the Social Media 300 are finding that social media is a cost-effective way to generate results. Most retailers can’t match, for example, the $3.9 million Amazon.com Inc. spends each month to drive traffic via paid search ads, according to search marketing firm ROI Revolution Inc. But they can channel their passion for, and their knowledge about, the products they sell into engaging campaigns on social networks and innovative design elements on their own e-commerce sites that integrate the comments, sharing and purchases of their socially connected fans.
On average, retailers in the Social Media 300 get 4.25% of their total site traffic directly from Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Those numbers vary widely from top to bottom—ranging anywhere from 0.33% for sporting goods merchant The Sportsman’s Guide (No. 300) all the way to 30% of site traffic for PetFlow.com.
And while it may be surprising as to which merchants are landing in the top of the rankings, it’s also important to note which ones are missing. The largest online merchant, Amazon.com Inc., and the world’s largest chain retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., both are ranked below 125. Other retail chains like Barnes & Noble Inc., Target Corp., Walgreen Co. and Best Buy Co. also fail to make the Top 100. In fact, there isn’t a single retailer with a physical store in the Top 10.
The Social Media 300 includes detailed operating data, including each merchant’s 2012 social commerce sales—defined as transactions completed on an e-commerce site after a consumer clicks from a social network—and conversion rate and average order values on visits from social networks.
While the leaders in the Social Media 300 are driving huge portions of traffic and sales from social networks, they are the exception. Internet Retailer research reveals social commerce sales as a whole are a small portion of total online sales. Merchants in the Social Media 300 brought in a total of $1.6 billion in social commerce sales last year, less than 1% of the $224.2 billion in U.S. online retail sales projected for 2012 by eMarketer, a research firm focused on online marketing and commerce.
Direct sales doesn’t tell the whole social media story, however, as many retailers see social media marketing primarily as a way to attract and engage consumers. This publication measures their success by reporting for each of the 300 retailers their Facebook fan counts, number of Twitter and Pinterest followers, and YouTube video views. Key engagement metrics are also included, such as average number of comments per Facebook post, number of Likes per Facebook fan and average retweets (or percentage of posts on Twitter that are re-shared by a retailer’s follower).
Information on how to order the Internet Retailer Social Media 300 is here.

Fashion Schools Embrace Social Media and E-commerce Training

Social media is now becoming a necessary part of professional training in the fashion industry.  Blogshopping stands in contrast to this, in that training is done hands-on and via trial and error in the course of running the business.

http://www.apparelnews.net/features/columns/062812-Fashion-Schools-Embrace-Social-Media-and-E-commerce-Training

Fashion Schools Embrace Social Media and E-commerce Training

by Deidre Crawford, Technology Editor June 29, 2012

Social media is a core part of any good marketing department, and recent college graduates looking for a job in marketing are expected to be knowledgeable about trends in digital media and e-commerce.
But it isn’t as easy as it looks, so training is important, said Los Angeles–based style blogger Kelsi Smith.
This summer, Smith is launching a new social-media marketing course at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles.
“I can’t tell you how many old-school marketers I come across in my day job that still don’t know what they’re doing with social media, so it’s good to have a new generation of graduates ready to go. That said, a well-rounded marketing background is most important. Social media only complements the traditional marketing avenues.”
Smith’s social-media marketing course will not focus on how to “share your style” or beauty tips, Smith said.
“This is a professional marketing program teaching students to use social media—be that blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube—as social-marketing tools,” she explained.
More than tweeting
FIDM is not the only fashion school enhancing its social-media curriculum.
When designer Christa Halby was looking to expand the online presence of her brand ChristaLouise, she turned to fashion student Faye Asido for help.
Asido is studying social media and e-commerce as part of her advertising and marketing communications degree at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. The courses are much more sophisticated than simply tweeting and blogging, and the skills she’s learning are not something she could learn on her own, she said.
“I don’t think students can learn on their own how to strategize a way to get the attention that’s needed. A lot of planning, editing and creativity is involved in social media and e-commerce because with so much competition you have to find a way to be different and stand out from the rest,” Asido explained. “You need to be very good at research and who is your appropriate target market. Not everyone will be interested in your product, so you have to find out how to target those who you think will benefit from what you are trying to sell. Otherwise, social media is pointless and your message will be difficult to come across.”
It was not long ago that leading fashion schools were where aspiring designers went to learn how to draw and design. Now, students are learning how to effectively position a brand online and manage a Facebook campaign, which are equally crucial skills, according to Gretchen Harnick, an assistant professor of fashion marketing at Parsons Fashion School at The New School for Design in New York.

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

inSha

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?

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.

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

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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.

Multiply Indonesia Expands Further into Indonesia

Multiply is to online selling what LiveJournal has been to blogshopping in Singapore.  This is a mirror article to the one a few weeks back about how re-purposed social selling has changed LiveJournal.  SO now we see how social media platform providers are beginning to respond to the blogshopping phenomenon which is now arguably fueling growth of these social media sites.

As they recognize the significance of this industry, they are starting to take steps to develop these platforms into social commere structures.  What this presents to blogshop owners is that it offers an option for them for growth and legitimacy.  Whereas previously blogshops had to convert to shopping carts to gain acceptance, they now can remain hosted on these sites while gaining a measure of recognition as e-commerce destinations as more proper selling tools like shopping carts and payment facilities are enabled.  Thus it is possible for blogshops to now be permanently hosted on social sites like this.

From: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/bisindonesia/multiply-indonesia-eyes-more-expansion-in-indonesia/441732

After establishing itself in Indonesia earlier this year, one of the world’s largest social networking sites wants to expand its workforce by four times and bring 100,000 local merchants into the site by the end of this year.

Multiply, which combines social networking and an online marketplace, has about 2 million active users in Indonesia and more than 35,000 merchants on its site. It brings in about 20 million unique visitors each month, about 7 million of which come from Indonesia.

“We just released Multiply Commerce on May 10, and within a week there were already 1,000 transactions happening through our payment gateway,” Daniel Tumiwa, the country manager for Multiply Indonesia, said on the sidelines of the Multiply Commerce launch on Wednesday.

“This year is the time for online transactions to take off in Indonesia,” he said. “On average, we have about 2,000 new merchants every month who upload about 50,000 new products per month.”

Multiply, launched in August 2004, was started as a social networking site for families and friends before Facebook existed.

Once users began utilizing the site to sell their products online, though, it decided to expand into an online marketplace. In September last year, the Myriad International Holdings unit of Naspers Limited acquired a controlling interest in Multiply.

It established a subsidiary in Indonesia last March and currently employs 37 people. The company plans to move to a large office in South Jakarta next week, in line with its plan to hire 150 employees by the end of this year.

Peter Pezaris, co-founder and chief executive of Multiply, visited Jakarta in February and said the US company was committed to make Indonesia its anchor market.

“By next year, Indonesia will be our biggest office, even bigger than the one in the US,” Pezaris said. Multiply’s office in Jakarta is its third after the US and the Philippines.

According to Daniel, more than 90 percent of the transactions in the site took place offline.

“I don’t know exactly how many transactions happened so far, but based on our internal survey, the average value per transaction is about Rp 150,000 [$17.50],” he said.

“One of the keys of ecommerce is trust and recommendations,” said Andy W. Djiwandono, vice president for marketing and business development at Multiply Indonesia. “That is why we established ‘trusted seller.’ ”

Although users can register as members for free, the company provides several options for premium accounts.

“At first I was selling stuff in Multiply just for fun. Within a short period of time, my business grew and now I am more serious about selling baby products and eco-friendly products,” said Anita, one of Multiply’s sellers who joined the site about two years ago.

Most of the sellers on the site, Daniel said, are women and people trying to earn extra income despite already working full-time jobs.

Multiply’s revenue streams come from advertising, premium memberships and commissions for each transaction completed through its payment gateway.

“We charge 3.9 percent for every transaction that is using our shopping cart,” Daniel said, adding that the most popular payment system was KlikBCA.

The site also supports other bank transactions and credit card payments through PayPal.

Another article:

Blogshopping is HUGE in Indonesia, although it is not called blogshopping.

Social shopping site Multiply to relocate its global headquarters to Indonesia

29th January 2012 by Jon Russell

Social shopping site Multiply has announced plans to relocate its global headquarters from Boca Raton, Florida, to Jakarta, Indonesia, according to a report from Daily Social.

The move is a rare example of a company choosing an emerging market over the US, as it is typically made the other way round, but there is much sense to the reshuffle which will bring the company closer to the majority of its users.

The service, which is reportedly the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia, has “more than 100,000 online merchants across the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam”, and CEO Peter Pezaris explains that the move is driven by increased opportunities:

We chose Jakarta because the opportunity is so large. It’s such a fast growing economy. So many people are using Multiply in Indonesia, it’s such an important market for us.

Multiple is not new to Southeast Asia and its existing Jakarta office houses more than 50 of its 126 global staff, while it also has a presence in the Philippines. Indonesia is its largest market, as it told the Jakarta Globe, and statistics from last year showed it drew 7 million monthly visitors to its 34,000 Indonesian sellers. These number are now likely to be significantly higher, particularly given that the company saw 2,000 new sellers from Indonesia joining each month.

In addition to the move, which was announced on location in Indonesia, Multiply is giving a nice perk to customers by waiving all shipping cost and transaction fees until March. It also has news for Indonesia, where it is expanding payment options to allow XL Tunai customers to make transactions via mobile operator XL Axiata, and Prima ATMs are also supported.

The company is not shy on making bold moves and it actually began life as a photo sharing social network which rivalled Facebook and others.

On noticing that its personal pages feature were increasingly being used to build online shops, it revamped its offering with the introduction Multiply Marketplace and moved down a completely new avenue as a social shopping service.

It has placed significant emphasis on Indonesia in the past and it ran the beta version of Multiply 5.0 exclusively in the country, before a wider pilot in Southeast Asia preceded the global launch of the enhanced platform in June 2010.

In spite of its pivot, Multiply’s photo sharing service still remains popular and, according to the company, it is the second largest social network in Southeast Asia — behind Facebook, of course — while it has “millions of additional users” in the US, Brazil and India.

The relocation of Multiply’s global office will be completed over the next 12 months, during which a number of personnel and positions will be relocated to Indonesia, the company said.

Image credit: Shutterstock user Russ Beinder

Yet another article on Multiply:

Multiply 5.0 e-commerce platform being tested in Indonesia

12th April 2011 by Francis Tan

What started as a social networking platform for photo and video sharing has evolved into a social shopping site that connects the sellers in a virtual world with eager spenders. Multiply 5.0, the photo-sharing social network turned robust e-commerce platform, is currently in the works and is being tested in Indonesia.
The beta version of Multiply 5.0 is initially available at Indonesia.multiply.com and according to the Multiply blog, the new platform will integrate an e-commerce catalog store, shopping cart and payment system designed to simplify the process not only for buyers but inventory and order management for sellers as well. Multiply’s high-resolution photo upload facility will still be present.

There is still no official date when Multiply 5.0 will be released to the public, but Multiply Indonesia will put the various facilities and features in the new version to the test in the real world.
Multiply recently expanded in Jakarta, Indonesia, which is expected to be the second largest office after its main headquarters in Florida, USA. Multiply Indonesia has 34,000 sellers network (with 2,000 new sellers every month) and is being graced by 7 million visitors each month.

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

From: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/tech-news/facebook-fails-to-deliver-on-social-shopping-this-holiday-season/article2282045/

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 Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011 12:01PM 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.”

A social commerce design label success story:

From: http://mashable.com/2011/11/26/tory-burch-cmo-miki-berardelli/

How Digital Marketing Fueled Fashion Label Tory Burch’s Global Expansion

1 day ago by Lauren Indvik 13

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American fashion designer Tory Burch founded her label in February 2004, the same month that Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his Harvard dorm room.
In the fashion industry, Burch’s rise has been nearly as striking: the 45-year-old CEO has expanded her line of ready-to-wear clothing and accessories to more than 450 department and specialty stores worldwide, as well as dozens of Tory Burch boutiques in the U.S., Europe and Asia. She opened 20 new shops, including several in international cities (Osaka, Seoul, Hong Kong, Kobe and Taipai), in 2010 alone.
Much of her success can be linked to an aggressive digital strategy, says Miki Berardelli, who has served as chief marketing officer of Tory Burch since 2009. The company launched ecommerce immediately after opening its first shop in downtown Manhattan, and toryburch.com generates more revenue than any physical store. Burch is one of the few designers to maintain a direct, ongoing dialogue with her friends and fans on Twitter, which she does in an easy-going and authentic manner. The company’s blog, which is helmed by former InStyle editor Honor Brodie, is broadly recognized in the industry as one of the leading manifestations of ongoing, brand-developed content.
We spoke with Berardelli about Tory Burch’s advancements in ecommerce and social media, and how the company is investing in what Berardelli believes is the “future of ecommerce”: namely, shopping through Facebook. A transcript of our Q&A is featured below.

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Q&A With Miki Berardelli, CMO, Tory Burch

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You joined Tory Burch in 2009. What drew you to the company?
I think it was really Tory’s vision to create a luxury brand that is accessible and has a sense of social responsibility — those were things that resonated with me both personally and professionally. There was also of course the people and the culture and, from a marketing perspective, the emotional connection that the customer had, and still has, with the brand.
How would you characterize the company’s marketing strategy at that time?
Tory always says that in the early years, not having a tremendous budget forced her to really think out of the box and tap into her and her team’s creativity. It was very much about editorial relationships and personal appearances, which enabled her to connect directly to the customer. Seven and a half years years later, that startup spirit is very much alive. We still have not bought traditional advertisements in U.S. magazines, although we do some display and online advertising.
How else have the company’s marketing efforts changed since you joined?
We continue to focus on all things digital. We redesigned our website earlier this year, which was very much about pulling all of the content [we have developed] into the shopping experience … [and] supporting mobile commerce. We’ve also done a lot in the social media space. Lately we’ve been focusing on the intersection of social, local and mobile, whether that’s for a new store opening in a specific market, or driving traffic into [our existing] stores. Given the rapid growth of the company, we’re also focused on analysis of our marketing efforts to ensure that they are effective.
How much of your marketing spend is allocated to online versus offline efforts?
It’s pretty even — or, I should say, it’s balanced. But everything we do, whether it’s our photography or our website, is all serving the marketing message of the company.
At what rate is your ecommerce business expanding? What percentage of your sales now occur online? What percentage occur on toryburch.com?
As we are a private company, we can’t disclose specific numbers. We are however forecasting a growth rate in the high double digits compared to last year. As for your second question, we see a slightly higher penetration of ecommerce sales to total business versus many brands that are distributed through retail or wholesale. What’s interesting about Tory is that she launched ecommerce immediately after opening [her first] store on Elizabeth Street [in New York]. Ecommerce has always been at the forefront, and toryburch.com is our largest store.
Mobile sales is currently our fastest-growing segment. The proliferation of iPad has definitely impacted our business, seeing a tremendous amount of traffic to our site [from users of those devices] specifically.
What have been among the biggest marketing and ecommerce challenges as you’ve expanded into new markets, particularly China?
China’s fascinating. The rate at which the Chinese sector is embracing ecommerce is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The challenge lies in understanding the landscape and deciding what makes sense for our brand, just as we do here. We launched our first Weibo site in support of the opening of our first store in Bejing. We are currently building ecommerce-enabled sites to support the markets that we’re in in Europe and in China.
Tory Burch has made considerable investments in developing online editorial, largely through its blog. Why have you invested there? Is it paying off — and if so, how?

“While the voice is consistent across all platforms, we treat each one differently because they are all unique.”

Tory wanted to tell the brand story in a more editorial way, and that led to hiring Honor Brodie from InStyle, who is now our creative director. She built a team that focuses on the Tory blog, which is expression of all the things that inspire and entertain Tory, whether it’s an artist or author or even another designer. The blog doesn’t talk much about Tory, but about other things, and I think that’s what’s unique about it.
Honor and I [have] worked together to integrate the blog and commerce. We’ve brought in all the content into the shopping experience so that the customer can explore and connect with the brand while they’re browsing product. We do look at the analytics of customers who explore content, and have found that they are a more highly engaged customer across the board, not only in how much time they spend on website, but in terms of their purchases and loyalty as well.
What does your current investment in social media look like?
We’re currently on Facebook, Twitter, Flipboard, Tumblr, Foursquare, YouTube, and Weibo in China. [Those accounts] are run by a small team of two people, except for Twitter, which is run by Tory herself, and Weibo, which is run by our team in Shanghai, in partnership with our editorial team in NYC. [Tory has] always embraced social media, and if it feels right for our brand, we’ll launch it, test our way into it, learn quickly and make adjustments as appropriate.
What about video?
The film genre is very important to Tory. We believe it’s a dynamic way to tell the brand story, we do all different types of films — behind the scenes during a seasonal photo shoot, or filming Tory on one of her trips where she gets inspiration for her designs. It’s a pretty varied mix of content, and we’re continuing to learn what is successful.
With so many platforms to choose from, how do you decide where to invest your time?
I can’t think that we’ve ever scaled back any of our efforts anywhere. We do make sure when pooling resources to manage another social platform that we do it well, that we take our time and think through how to do each platform differently. On Tumblr we do one strong image and a letter, and on Facebook we do more behind-the-scenes content. With Foursquare, we focus on the location element. While the voice is consistent across all these platforms, we treat each one differently because they are all unique.
What sort of return on your investment have you seen? And how do you measure it: sales conversions or engagement?
We measure both. Although we have a very strong and growing Facebook and Twitter community, we [also] want to have a truly engaged community. In terms of metrics, we look at Klout score, amplification and responses. We pay close attention to what types of messages we post and how they are received, and that informs our thinking going forward. It’s truly a constant learning process.
You’ve recently begun experimenting with Fcommerce by offering discounts on certain items through Facebook. Why have you pursued that strategy in particular?
We’re testing some concepts now, including exclusives on Facebook. It’s more of a surprise and delight for our Facebook community, and so far it’s been successful in driving excitement and sales. Consumers who are fans of a brand on Facebook have a certain appropriate expectation that there should be an exclusive benefit just for them. [Our exclusive discounts] are about tapping into that sensibility.
Do you think Facebook will ever become a major sales channels for you? If not, what value does it offer you as a company?
We believe that social shopping, or Fcommerce as everyone is calling it now, is the future of ecommerce. The demographic skews younger on Facebook compared to our core customer, so we see it as a really important way to connect with that consumer. We’re embracing [Fcommerce] with our Facebook shop and our exclusives early on so we can learn quickly. I don’t think we’ll import our full catalog to Facebook. My hunch is — and Honor and I talk about this a lot — that the experience should be curated in some way, and we’re testing some ideas and concepts with that in mind. We love Google Catalogs, the idea of taking our traditional printed formats and bringing it into a digital space, but I think — as we were mentioning earlier about social platforms needing to be slightly differentiated — that is true of social shopping as well.
Does the same potential exist for other platforms?
They’re all so different. I think about Flipboard and being able to create your own personalized content, but it’s hard to say. Facebook is certainly the destination where social shopping is being most closely integrated, both on Facebook Pages and on retail sites.
Are you planning to set up a Google+ page?
Yes, we’re excited.
What advice would you give other brands — fashion or otherwise — going forward?
I think it’s about being yourself. In the social space it’s just as important to stay true to your brand and your brand’s lens just as you would anywhere else.

Social Media Marketing & Research Reports for SMBs

From: http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/article.php/3939701

Social Media Marketing & Research Reports for SMBs
By Vangie Beal

November 17, 2011

Social commerce (or social shopping) refers to the growing number of today's consumers who use social networking services and sites to share their latest purchases, deals, product reviews, want lists, and other shopping finds.  Keeping track of social media trends, research and statistics gives small business ecommerce site owners a solid foundation to plan and then to create a retail or Internet marketing strategy that is optimized for social media.
The following social media-related research and statistics are free reports or research highlights from trusted industry sources and experts.

11 Social Media Growth and User Statistics for 2011

Here are the top industry research reports to help you understand how many people use social media and social networking sites, the growth of social media in general, and which of the services are the most popular among consumers.

• Twenty-eight percent of all American adults use mobile or social location-based services of some kind. This includes 9 percent of Internet users who set up social media services such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn to automatically include their location in their posts on those services. (Source: Pew Research Center; Internet & American Life Project)
• Social media has grown rapidly. Today nearly four out of five active Internet users visit social networks and blogs. Americans spend more time on Facebook than they do on any other U.S. website. (Source: Nielsen; Social Media Report Q32011)
• Forty-two percent of online consumers have "followed" a retailer proactively through Facebook, Twitter or a retailer's blog, and the average person follows about six retailers. While shoppers' reasoning for following a retailer varies, the majority of respondents (58 percent) said they follow companies to find deals, while nearly half (49 percent) say they want to keep up to date on products. (Source: Shop.org/comScore/Social Shopping Labs; 2011 Social Commerce Study)
• ComScore ranks Facebook.com as #4 in the list of its Top 50 U.S Properties in September 2011 (source; comScore Media Metrix; Top 50 U.S. Web Properties for September 2011)
• Sixty-five percent of adult Internet users now say they use a social networking site like MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn.  Among Internet users, social networking sites are most popular with women and young adults, but most of the growth over the past year came from adults over age 30. Looking at overall usage, wired seniors grew their ranks the most over the past year; 33 percent of people aged 65 and older now use the sites. (Source: Pew Research Center; Internet & American Life Project)
• How many Facebook users are there?  The Facebook User Growth Chart shows the number of Facebook users from 2004 to 2011 based on a variety of data including Facebook. (Source: Ben Foster; Facebook User Growth Chart)
• Ninety-one percent of online adults today (or 129 million individuals) access social media in a typical month. The greatest growth sector is among older Americans. Today 82 percent of people ages 55 to 64 use social media in a typical month. (Source: Experian; The 2011 Social Media Consumer Trend and Benchmark Report)
• Contradicting commonly held beliefs about gender and social behaviors, the 2011 Social Shopping Study showed men more frequently research product information, read reviews, compare products, find product availability and get store information via social networks, shopping and deal sites; women reign supreme when searching for deals, coupons and specials on similar sites. (Source; Performics; The 2011 Social Shopping Study)
• Facebook users are more trusting, have more close friends, are more politically engaged, and get more support from their friends. A Facebook user who uses the site multiple times per day is 43 percent more likely than other Internet users and more than three times as likely as non-Internet users to feel that most people can be trusted. (Source: Pew Research Center; Internet & American Life Project)
• In previous Future of the Internet surveys, email has most often been mentioned as a key social tool online. In this survey, social networks were mentioned far more often than email. Other social applications noted by respondents included instant messaging, blogging, text messages and voice over IP. (Source; Pew Research Center; Future of the Internet Survey)
• Experian Hitwise reports that during the month of August 2011, Facebook users spent 20 minutes and 46 seconds each time they visited Facebook.com, compared with Twitter users who spent 12 minutes and 41 seconds during a typical visit to Twitter.com. Google+ users spend considerably less time on that site with the average visit to plus.google.com clocking in at 5 minutes and 45 seconds. (Source: Experian; The 2011 Social Media Consumer Trend and Benchmark Report)

5 Social Commerce and Social Shopping Trends for 2011

From sharing a product review on Twitter to checking out with a Facebook login, the following social commerce and social shopping reports can help you prepare for selling in this new channel.

• The appetite for buying directly through social networks appears strong: one-third of shoppers say they would be likely to make a purchase directly from Facebook (35 percent) or Twitter (32 percent).  (Source: Shop.org/comScore/Social Shopping Labs; 2011 Social Commerce Study)
• According to October 2011 conversion rates, 9.2 percent of consumers that visited a retail site from a social media site made a purchase. This compares to 5.5 percent of all direct online shopping last year. Also in 2010, the vast majority of social shopping will continue to come from Facebook, which in October accounted for 77 percent of all traffic from social networks. (Source: IBM Coremetrics; IBM's fourth-annual Benchmark Campaign)
• Active social networkers most often turn to shopping sites like Amazon, eBay or brand websites to begin the purchase process when searching for a product (87 percent) and right before they commit to a purchase (83 percent). They are more likely to turn to social networks such as Facebook immediately after the purchase to share their experience (59 percent). (Source; Performics; The 2011 Social Shopping Study)
• More than 80 percent of the affluent are social media users. The average age of respondents was 43.9 years and average household income was $308,700, net wealth $9.2 million. Virtually all respondents use the Internet for personal uses, including shopping. A segment called 'heavy-users' was identified as important for luxury marketers when planning Internet and social media strategy. (Source: Unity Marketing; Affluent Consumers and How They Use the Internet, Social Media, and Mobile Devices)
• Parents are spending, on average, 14 hours a week of their personal time on the Internet, six of these on social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. Despite the enormous presence of parents on social networking sites it was revealed that this activity failed to have a significant impact on purchasing decisions when compared to offline conversation with friends and family. (Source: Different Size Feet via BizCommunity; Meet the Family:  A new model for social influence)

 How Businesses Use Social Media: 5 Marketing and Research Reports

Most marketers understand that Internet marketing has to span all the communication channels their customers use. The following research report looks at some of the facts, figures and issues surrounding social media communications for businesses, and it also provides a look at how businesses use social media for marketing and sales.

• Ninety percent of marketers indicate that social media is important for their business. The majority of marketers (58 percent) are using social media for 6 hours or more each week, and more than a third (34 percent) invest  11 or more hours weekly. (Source: Social Media Examiner; 2011 Social media Marketing Industry report)
• Thirty-four percent invest 11 or more hours weekly. (Source: Social Media Examiner; 2011 Social media Marketing Industry report)
• Companies have moved from experimentation with social media marketing to a range of activities that are more likely to be integrated with other marketing channels and across business functions. More than half of company respondents (52 percent) say their organizations use Facebook for reacting to customer issues and inquiries compared to only 29 percent last year. (Source: Econsultancy/LBi/bigmouthmedia; The State of Social Report 2011)
• Companies looking to drive traffic to their core brand sites should strongly consider a social media campaign promoted by email. According to Experian CheetahMail, making email the foundation of a social campaign is key, given that the typical company's email list is 32 times larger than the number of fans they have on Facebook. An analysis conducted by Experian Hitwise also reveals that 60 percent of brands that sent out an email with the word 'Facebook' in the subject line averaged a 27 percent increase in traffic to their website the week following the email deployment. (Source: Experian; The 2011 Social Media Consumer Trend and Benchmark Report)
• Twenty-seven percent of small businesses use Facebook, eighteen percent use LinkedIn and seven percent use Twitter. Overall, nine percent of small businesses said a social media expert would be their most helpful new hire -- the second most popular choice behind a book keeper. (Source: Crowdspring; Small Businesses and Social Media Infographic)

PayPal Launches Facebook App for Sending Money to Friends

Payment is a thorn in the side for blogshops and Facebook stores which typically do not utilize automated payment systems like Paypal to afcilitate transactions.

This has given rise to credibility issues, that is the inadequacy of the platform to process e-commerce transactions.

With this new app, however, it might make social commerce more convenient for sellers and buyers.  I think this represents a step toward credibilizing social commerce.  In other words, instead of blogshop/FB store owners having to move to a more 'legitimate' EC platfiorm like a shopping cart to gain credibility, social media is becoming more credible as an EC platform with facilitites like this.

The other question, of course, is whether users in this part of the world will adopt this or other apps like this one.

From: http://mashable.com/2011/11/17/paypal-facebook-send-money/#view_as_one_page-gallery_box3137


Social payments are taking a giant leap forward. PayPal has unveiled a Facebook app that lets you send money to friends.


The app, simply titled Send Money, is just as straightforward as its name. You have the choice to send either an ecard with money or just money with no card. You select a card, choose a friend to send it to and then select how much money to send.

“The PayPal and Facebook infrastructure have now merged,” PayPal’s Anuj Nayar says. “This is another way to personalize the act of giving money.”

While there are several ways to pay with PayPal via Facebook (Payvment comes to mind), this is the first app to enable peer-to-peer payments via Facebook and PayPal. And because it’s a peer-to-peer transaction, there is no transaction fee, though PayPal’s regular limits and international fees still apply.

“Sending money, person to person, is free,” PayPal Senior Product Marketing Manager JB Coutinho said. “If it’s funded by a PayPal balance or linked to a bank account, it’s free.”

And while the primary aspect of the Send Money app is its enablement of transactions across the world’s largest social network, the ecard aspect is being emphasized as well. PayPal was quick to point out that more than 500 million ecards are sent every year, and that’s why PayPal is offering dozens of choices for everything from birthdays to congratulations.

We can see the app really taking off. Users who see on Facebook that it’s a friend’s birthday can quickly fire up the app and send a card and some cash within a few minutes. The app is just as useful for things like lottery pools and reimbursing friends for lunch. It’s a big step toward making social payments a reality.

If you want to learn more about the PayPal Send Money Facebook App, we’ve created a simple walkthrough of the payment process. Check it out in the gallery below, and let us know what you think of the app in the comments.

The PayPal Send Money Facebook App

The Facebook app lets you send money and/or ecards to friends.

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Choosing a Card

You can choose from dozens of different cards for special occasions, birthday and holidays.

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Let's Choose a Card

I've chosen to send a money cupcake.

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PayPal and Facebook Friends

Now it's time to pick a Facebook friend to send the card to. But first, PayPal needs access to my Facebook friends.

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Choosing a Facebook Friend

In this example, I am sending Mashable's Christina Warren some money. I chose her from my Facebook friends, but I also need her email address, since PayPal payments are tied to email.

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Writing a Note

You can write a short note to your Facebook friend.

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How Much Do You Want to Send?

This is the part where you choose how much you want to send. There is no fee if you pay via a PayPal balance or a bank account.

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Confirm Payment

After logging into PayPal, you can send the money.

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Payment Sent

Congrats! Your payment and/or ecard have been sent. The card appears on your friend's wall, but only you and your friend can see it.

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PayPal Send Money Ecard

This is what a PayPal Send Money ecard looks like.

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