Business value: How social media affects E-commerce

With the development of mobile networks, shopping websites and retail retailing are converging gradually. But while http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/7820.html "> online retailing has made great strides, online stores are still unable to provide" instant gratification "from physical stores. At the same time, another common problem for web retailers is that shoppers will cancel a virtual "shopping cart" before the final purchase because some users who visit the Web store simply prefer to use the shopping cart as a shopping list, or to browse and compare prices.

How to overcome the obstacles in online shopping, using social media and emerging technologies may reduce these problems. For example, when customers find it difficult to determine if their underwear fits, they can use the "try" virtual jeans to get an idea of the actual dress effect.

Now, a U.S. shopping website called the Colony is working with a number of clothing retailers, which are mainly for girls ' groups. The study found that these young customers always need to be sure of their friends before they confirm their purchase. They usually go shopping together and talk to each other to make sure they buy the right thing. As a result, the colony website says that they are currently developing social networking tools that allow shoppers to open conversations and allow their friends to join the online decision-making process. Another tool used to control the cancellation of a virtual shopping cart is a dynamic e-mail system that, when a purchaser cancels a shopping cart, will quickly send an email to shoppers, offer discounts or other types of promotions, and ultimately achieve the goal of shopping for customers.

Of course there is a situation where visitors to a shopping site do not always decide to buy something, but once they are ready they will come back for an order. Then you can add social bookmarking to the product, making it more convenient for customers to turn back when shopping. By adding social bookmarking to the items displayed on the site, customers can instantly store items in browsers, emails and even other social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.

Research has also shown that many travellers do not easily buy travel products online until they have been consulted by friends or viewed by netizens. The London Kukunu Company's website kukunu.com provides users with a new travel planning experience that distinguishes them from travel agencies, perfecting and simplifying the travel life of users. Kukunu users can travel with the "friends" in the Kukunu Web site to collaborate on the development of personalized travel routes, according to their preferences to add the journey of the city's traffic, hotels, restaurants, activities, attractions and other information. Of course, most importantly, Kukunu users can receive their Twitter and Facebook friends ' recommendations and suggestions for their travel plans online in time to get the richest itinerary possible at the most favorable price. Through cooperation with a number of travel agencies, Kukunu can provide users with more than 100,000 hotels and more than 200,000 choice of travel activities, and provide a lower price.

There is also a point that we should pay special attention to, because the network is becoming more and more perfect, retailers can easily according to the consumer's life or shopping area to lock objects, and then communicate with them in real time. Just as geographically based social networks (such as Foursquare) require users to share their spending patterns with their friends, such social networks are also seen as another important way for brands to move into the community.

In short, whether or not online stores are closer to consumers will depend on the time, technology, and money that top managers are willing to devote to consolidating and adding personalized services to their sites. This is a question on which link to invest in, although there are still some problems in the integration, but technology continues to progress, the application is becoming increasingly perfect. In the next two years, customer personalization will play an increasingly important role in e-commerce because social media is becoming more and more important in retailing. If you don't get into the field, you're doomed to lag behind. (This digest is compiled from Wharton knowledge Online)