Conclusion

Our study clearly shows there is a lot more that retailers with ecommerce solutions – both large and small - can do to exploit the growing opportunities presented by social media marketing.

Many retailers are merely dipping their toes into the water of social media and not making significant efforts to engage with their customers directly through the most relevant social channels. Whilst there are some examples of online retailers doing a great job of using social media channels to their full advantage, the majority are missing out on these opportunities.

Entry costs into social media marketing are low, and the potential for spreading marketing messages virally through social media sites is high. In today’s challenging economic climate, no online retailer can afford to miss out on the highly cost-effective audience reach and influence these channels can offer.

What's Next?

When it comes to the fast pace of social networks, the flavour of the month now may be next month’s old hat. It’s important for retailers to monitor emerging social media trends to maximise their potential benefits.

At dotCommerce, we’ve picked out some of the new developments to watch out for in 2010:

Product Sharing: Example - 'This is next'

www.thisisnext.com

Sites like www.thisnext.com use ‘product sharing’ which allows users to subscribe to and post their own product recommendations and ‘shopcast’ these across their social networks creating a highly engaged community of online shoppers.

Shop With Your Friends

In a similar vein, ‘Shopping with Your Friends’ has the potential to change the way users make their purchase decisions online. A ‘Shop with Your Friends’ link lets users invite their friends into the online stores they are shopping in, to chat about the items they are viewing and picking.  Users can also see how their Facebook friends rate the products they are picking and what other products they prefer.

It is likely that more ecommerce solutions will incorporate features like these and so change the way online buyers review and recommend products. In doing so, they will really take advantage of the collaboration and engagement brought by social media to build loyal customers and even extend their customer base.





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