5 Social Shopping Trends Shaping the Future of Ecommerce

1. 5 Social Shopping TrendsShaping the Future of Ecommerce May 26, 2010

2. Lauren Freedman, President, the e-tailing group, Inc. Pehr Luedtke, CEO, PowerReviews, Inc. The Voice of Cross-Channel Merchandising • 15 years ecommerce consulting • Author, It’s Just Shopping • 50+ years traditional retail and catalog experience • Fortune 500 client projects ranging from strategic planning, merchandising, marketing, to technology development and messaging • Proprietary research studies on mystery shopping, merchandising and consumer behavior • The leader in social commerce, focusing exclusively on retail • With over 1000 clients, the most widely deployed customer ratings platform in the world • Most robust product offering • Technology platform complimented by human support

3. Webinar Agenda The e-tailing group Trend Tracker Why the consumer voice? Why now? 2010 Social Shopping Study Results Social Commerce Success Planner Q&A Session 5 Social Shopping Trends Shaping the Future of Ecommerce

4. The e-tailing group Trend Tracker Social shopping from the merchant perspective

5. The Merchant Adoption Curve Beyond the merchandising standards ratings/reviews occupy a prominent place on the product page while social and sharing tools quickly see escalated penetration Source: 2009 e-tailing group Mystery Shopping Survey

6. Reviews ranked in top 1/3 of features; social via sharing gains prominence Source: 2009 e-tailing group Mystery Shopping Survey

7. Many merchants are already employing social tools on their sites Today 78% employ Facebook fan pages, 65% use customer reviews,and 64% are publishing via Twitter Source: 2009 e-tailing group Mystery Shopping Survey

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

9. 5 Social Shopping Trends Shaping the Future of Ecommerce 2010 Social Shopping Study Results

10. Survey Methodology Survey Objectives • Understand category-centric behavior relative to overall trust and online shopping • Explore customer utilization of social media to assess perception, interest, and propensity to buy based on engagement with these newer tools • Trend customer reviews and social shopping monitoring changing and evolving consumer behavior since the initial jointly sponsored survey in 2007 • Assess merchant perception relative to consumer interest level in social media tools In March 2010 PowerReviews and the e-tailing group fielded an online questionnaire to over 1,000 consumers (50% male/50% female) who shop online four or more times annually, spending over $250 via that channel. 10

11. 5 Trends in Social Shopping Control rests with consumers Research starts with search, but happens on brand and retailer sites Consumers expect social tools for their research experience, engaging mostly with the basics Consumers seek a variety of voices throughout the research experience Facebook is the social platform for researching/shopping 1 2 3 4 5

12. Control rests with consumers 1

13. Online research puts the consumer in control of the research experience Year-over-year the percentage of overall shopping that involves researching productsonline remains strong as currently 50% say it is a factor at least half the time.

14. Most consumers satisfied with available info 82% report being somewhat to very satisfied with information when researching online

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

16. And saves significant time 79% report saving somewhat to much more time doing their own research online compared to more traditional in-store research

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

18. Research starts with search, but happens on brand/retailer sites 2

19. Search continues to be the starting point for research; social media not top of mind 4 A majority of shoppers (57%) begin research with a search engine; yet one-fifth choose either the brand’s site or a retailer.

20. Search is a conduit; research takes place on brand and retail sites Past search, retailer and brand sites were named as the top places where shoppers will typically research products online.

21. Consumers expect social tools 3

22. The basics continue to be important Consumers expect social tools in the online shopping process, engaging mostly with the basics.

23. Consumers are more engaged with the #1 social tool, reviews Compared to 2007, shoppers are reading more customer reviews to be confident judging a product with people reading 8 or more up 77% over 2007 and 16 or more up 140%.

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

25. Consumers demand a more comprehensive and credible review experience

26. Consumers seek a variety of voices 4

27. Friends and likeminded consumers are more influential than experts

28. Consumers trust reviews to corroborate other research/voices

29. Traditional ecommerce merchandising & customer service also serve as a voice to validate research

30. Facebook is the social platform for researching/shopping 5

31. After basic social shopping tools, Facebook features show the most potential to inform buying behavior 4

32. The driver of Facebook relevance in social shopping is the “friend” voice 50 or fewer friends 34%

33. Facebook provides an opportunity for frequent social engagement

34. The e-tailing group checklist for facilitating trust • Think “trust” and the influence of all merchandising and marketing programs on how consumers will react and respond • Ensure your site is a destination that serves the information hungry shopper well • Present a product page complete with strong descriptions, in-depth user-generated content, rich media and recommended products • Nurture user-generated content and present the whole picture to garner the greatest trust among your customer base • Monitor and embrace social media in order to understand customer behavior that sets the stage for future selling efforts

35. Social Commerce Success Plan Developing your social commerce strategy

36. 1. Build the foundation for trust • Initiate the conversation, focusing on the fundamentals: • Customer reviews • Q&A • Eliminate factors that degrade trust: • Focus on content volume • Present balanced perspectives • Identify verified users • Minimize the friction between engaging with content and purchasing a product

37. 2. Make content easy to find and consume Findable through SEO Easy to consume

38. 3. Accelerate trust through the collective voice Facebook “Friends” Brand “Experts” “People Like Me” Staff “Experts” Community “Experts”

39. PowerReviews Social Commerce Suite Foundation Collective Voice Findability Focus on the #1 tools with the greatest impact on buying behavior Make it easy for shoppers to find and quickly navigate your content Give researchers access to all of the voices they trust in one place Retail Site • Customer Reviews + Q &A • Drives the highest level of community generated content • People like you integrated into review collection process and display • In-Line SEO + Review Display 2.0 • Leverage customer voice and long tail keywords by making social content searchable • Quickly summarize and add credibility to content with Review Snapshot & Review Faceoff • People like you + Facebook Like Button + Brandshare • Turnkey integration of 3 most influential voices into your site • Automatically display content from likeminded users, friends, and brand experts

40. What’s next? “Social commerce”becomes “Open commerce.” User content invigorates the entire organization.

41. Q&A

42. Thanks for coming. To request a demo/social commerce consultation: webinar@powerreviews.com To contact your speakers directly: Lauren: lf@e-tailing.com Pehr:pehr@powerreviews.com To download a copy of this webinar, visit: http://powerreviews.com/5trends Also, don’t forget to come see us at IRCE in June! Booth #628

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