Social Commerce
In a recent discussion I had with the CIO of a 100 year old retailer, he brought up a point of exploring social networking ideas to attract the 20-30 year old customers. Likewise, retailers like Nordstrom have experimented with a designer collections site to attract the younger fashion concious customer earlier on in their lifestage cycle.
This seems quite an interesting trend cutting across retail segments and the usage of customer reviews and feedback forums are influencing shopping cart conversion and buying decisions. Retailers have experiened benefits with social commerce technology providers such as Bazaarvoice.
Consumer generated content can be effectively leveraged by companies in testimonials, product feedback and reviews, new product ideas, target marketing new concepts and understanding the positive and negative dispositions of customers to products, brands and the shopping experience.
I like Patty Seybold's perspective on this subject http://outsideinnovation.blogs.com/pseybold/2006/12/are_you_leverag.html . Our advice to clients is that they must ensure that the "voice of the customer" is central to the way we design the shopping experience.
