Social Shopping: Bringing the Mall Experience Online

Social media at it’s best is when real life social experiences are translated online, allowing us to stay connected with friends and family more efficiently than we ever could before technology.

With that in mind, the trend towards social shopping isn’t very surprising. Shopping can be a very social experience; people like to get other’s opinions before making a purchase. This is why people often go shopping together, and why online ratings and reviews have always been so popular.

However, since the advent of ratings and reviews there have been some major advances in social media integrations with shopping. For advertisers and companies, this is one way to monetize your social media presence.

According to a report from eMarketer, teens especially are driving this move towards social shopping online.

“In making purchase decisions, teens rely on social media and mobile phones in both conventional and innovative ways. They share news about bargains with close friends via text messaging; they use the built-in camera on their phones to snap photos while trying on clothes, then upload the pictures to Facebook. YouTube has become a popular destination for teens to view amateur makeup tutorials. And several startups are giving teens new ways to shop virtually with friends and receive instant feedback on fashion looks from a community of peers.”

They’re adapting the current tools in order to find ways to use their social connections to make purchase decisions. Smart companies will capitalize on this by making new tools, or improving on current technology, to encourage and support this behavior.

Amazon and Facebook:

Amazon is one company that’s taking advantage of the trend in social shopping. Amazon is partnering with Facebook to offer Facebook users a very customized shopping experience on Amazon.com. Users who choose to provide their Facebook credentials to Amazon will get product suggestions for friends’ birthdays and even for themselves based on profile information. Popular items based on your friends’ preferences will also be available.

This represents a shift away from general ratings and reviews to friend specific opinions. I would put a lot more weight on a review from someone I know over multiple reviews from people I’ve never met. The closer we get to personalizing reviews based on individual social networks, the more powerful social shopping will be. If you’re a company that sells products to consumers, this is the perfect time to start thinking about how you can use social media as part of the online buying experience.

About the Author: Katie VanDomelen

As social media manager Van Domelen develops strategic social media campaigns for a variety of local, national and international Off Madison Ave clients. In addition, she leads social media training for several of these clients and manages ongoing projects and campaign implementation. Most recently, Van Domelen worked as the social content manager at another top local digital marketing agency.

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