Increasing numbers of customers now shop online and integrating social media could change the nature of online merchandising. With Twitter now boasting over 100 million users, and 300k more joining daily (and with an estimated 280 million users of smart and feature phones), the consumer is an ever-moving target that is never more than a click, ring, text, or tweet away from entering ‘shopper mode’.
Social media marketing can be integrated into the sales process; engaging ‘fans’ and rewarding them for their loyalty. ‘Customer engagement’ is now as much about ‘online interaction’. This is a great opportunity for brands to develop a two-way communication process with their fans and their customers.
Add to this the fact that customers are now prepared to pay more for customised products and specialist ‘one-off’s (with the increase in access to and cheapness of print-on-demand technologies) and you have a marketplace for bespoke products being created by the fans in an exclusive VIP shopping environment whilst providing the customer the opportunity to purchase while ‘on the go’.
Example: Heinz balsamic ketchup
Example: Angry Birds: personalised t-shirts
Mobile social media as part of this merchandising strategy should be used to allow consumers to:
- Share product reviews
- Get information on products and services
- Compare prices
- Find locations that carry the product at the time that they are ready to purchase.
Combining social media tools can offer an engaging and valuable online experience for consumers. Mobile bar codes, or QR codes can provide even greater access to product and/or inventory information when the consumer is in store and also provide a means to pass coupons and time sensitive deal information to the consumer. Knowledge of this alone can drive usage of the technology forward and bring shoppers ‘in store’.
Social media success relies on an idea or experience that is worth talking about and ideally it is about turning conversations into conversions. Using interactive retail, drives shoppers to special events at individual stores and provides a positive in-house shopping experience, which generates a loyal fan base.
Transfer this to a purely social media realm, and campaigns based on being active with Twitter or Facebook: at a specific time, for a specific deal, can generate traffic to fan sites.
Example: ‘Wet Seal’ is a Teen clothing brand in America that recommends using social media and user-generated content:
“It’s a natural merging of the two most significant technologies today – social media and smartphones. Social media provides engaging merchandising content whether it is user generated product reviews or product ensembles, recommended by users. Mobile merchandising is in its infancy but combining social, in context and entertaining elements to present merchandise will capitalize on the key elements of the mobile user experience,” – Jon Kubo, chief information officer of Wet Seal, Burbank, CA.
Part 2 coming tomorrow!
