Categories: Articles

AdWeek Jumps In On Social Shopping

I’d like to think that the AdWeek article, Study Says Web Shoppers Crave ‘Social’ Experience, was inspired by my recent Blog posting, Social Shopping Takes Hold As The Next Hot Online Social Network, but I’m not that full of myself.
Fact is the article is further proof that Social Shopping seems like the perfect (and logical) segue for online social networks to grow into a business.
Here’s a snippet:
“Marketers can appeal to social shoppers by participating in community-based Web environments that ‘deliver an integrated social experience’ such as Second Life, said the study. But generally, it claimed, the type of community that social shoppers crave is not offered by the current generation of Web sites.
In order to appeal to social shoppers, analyst Ray Valdes, who oversaw the study, recommended sites adopt four characteristics: an extremely simple buying process; a seamless blending of shopping and nonshopping activities; free-form information not controlled by one vendor; and information and links to other vendor locations.”
The article was based on a study released by Gartner Research on Social Shopping: Social Shopping Will Shape The Future Of E-Commerce.
I’m feeling more and more about Social Shopping the same way I did when I was embedded in the Search Engine business (which was way before Google ever existed) and the idea of buying keywords with text links was just starting to take hold. That rare moment when we jumped from pure organic search results into a practical business model that would not cannibalize the power of search – it’s that exact feeling I have now that the potential of Social Shopping is being explored.
You can read the article here: AdWeek – Study Says Web Shoppers Crave ‘Social’ Experience.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.