Social Commerce

Question 1

what is social commerce?

Answer 1

= the delivery of e-commerce activities and transactions through social networks and/or via web 2.0 software

Question 2

how did social commerce first begin and what were the main issues?

Answer 2

In 1999, Amazon introduced purchase circles
allowed customers to find out what people in their work/family/friend circles are buying.

• privacy issues
• trust issues
• bad business

Question 3

What types of social commerce are there?

Answer 3

reviews and ratings
social recommendations and referrals 
social shopping 
F-commerce - graph search 
T-commerce - amex/chirpify

Question 4

problems with review sites

Answer 4

• reviews are typically posted by people that had a poor experience
• review syndication takes place (seeking to fix negative feedback and promote satisfied customer experiences)
• examples of review syndication include creating fake accounts across multiple review sites, syndicate a single review across multiple sites

Question 5

what are social recommendations and referrals?

Answer 5

using online social capabilities to share purchased items with network.

e.g facebook - recommendations based on what friends have purchased

Question 6

what is t-commerce?

Answer 6

using payments for goods through twitter

e. g. chirpify - create a tweet and people reply with ‘buy’
e. g. Amex cardholders sync card with Twitter. Amex retailers offer deals, cardholders can buy them through tweeting

Question 7

what is facebook opengraph technology?

Answer 7

aggregation of a facebook user’s ‘like’ data into a profile that can be used by other third-parties to improve the customer experience.

allows instant personalisation

currently used by 8 approved partners including tripAdvisor, which has used it to set up own traveller network. users can see their friends’ reviews and map where they have visited.

Question 8

what are social widgets

Answer 8

button that links to twitter/facebook page, shares purchases

Question 9

F-commerce landmine or goldmine

Answer 9

• privacy issues
• ability to aggregate data and create profile
• people get annoyed seeing ads
• concerns about fraud; 53% of consumers did not think that fb protect against fraud

+ personalised/targeted ads
+ valuable data mine

Question 10

what is personalised shopping

Answer 10

ability of companies to utilise internet technologies to tailor the shopping experience to individuals.
Data relating to a consumers’ past purchases and products they have viewed can be used to provide suggestions to customers and tailor offers or special discounts.
For example, many sites such as asos and Topshop allow consumers to add products to a wish-list

Question 11

what is f-commerce?

Answer 11

different types of commerce on facebook;

facebook onsite selling - gives customers to connect website with their facebook e.g. Amazon uses details such as friends bdays and your likes to suggest products.

facebook storefront - users browse on the fb page, then redirected to shop to buy. can include ‘shop and share’ feature

Question 12

what is social shopping?

Answer 12

a method of commerce where shoppers’ friends become involved in the shopping experience. Social shopping attempts to use technology to mimic the social interactions found in physical malls and stores. With the rise of mobile devices, social shopping is now extending beyond the online world and into the offline world of shopping

e.g. Groupon and LivingSocial allow groups to buy together at discount prices - includes reviews and ratings