Social Shopping - Is it really what she wants?

Posted on | February 19, 2008 |

It’s no surprise we think of Google as the great internet efficiency booster. It’s easy to use and it’s usually right. But try asking Google to help you go shopping online – no dice. Those queries will send you to some random-looking specialty retailers, huge shopping search engines and some social shopping sites. What search engine shopping is missing context – maybe that’s why Neilsen found that almost twice as many consumers shop at a regular purchase site rather than comparison shopping on a search engine. For busy online shoppers, going to a virtual store they know may be a lot less overwhelming than plowing through too many undifferentiated choices. At the websites I run - SheFinds.com and MomFinds.com- the magic formula is a well crafted shopping guide that nabs overwhelmed googlers looking for help. Our highest converting pages are shopping guides, like our bra guide, that are highly indexed on search engines; shoppers seem to like our edited-down, advice-laden approach to product lists. This isn’t too surprising considering one survey last holiday season found that 91% of consumers use online shopping for research purposes - shoppers are looking for guidance. Contextual e-commerce is one of the driving concepts behind my company, White Cat Media. We believe in commerce in context, and vice versa - that’s why everything we write has a product link, and every product we suggest has editorial content attached. The women who visit our websites know they can find products they’ll want to buy. We differ from social shopping sites – social networking-like sites that provide product links – by linking to fewer products but providing a more contextual shopping experience; we have a voice, a style, and a relationship with our reader.

Social shopping gives consumers a social network to facilitate shopping choices. Sites like ThisNext, Kaboodle, StyleHive and Wists allow users to communicate to suggest products, relay price information and find deals. A handful are doing very well - Hearst bought Kaboodle for an undisclosed amount - rumored to be about $40 million - in 2007, and ThisNext recently got $5 million in funding. The New York Times compared the sites to MySpace: “designed for both browsing and blogging, with some shopping-related technology twists included.” But a recent search for “bras” on one of those sites turned up a variety of whimsical “pasties.” Probably not what most busy women were looking for. It’s no surprise that Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer finds Consumer-generated reviews are becoming more influential in the purchase-decision process. But the reviews only work if the reviewer has similar taste to yours and we all know there are a lot of people with questionable taste on the Internet.

We believe that time-pressed but style-savvy women primarily in their 20s, 30s and 40s - the context gained from the social aspect is all but lost in the size and breadth of the sites. Contextual e-commerce has worked for us because our readers feel like we are their social network – the one they’re looking for, not one they have to browse for hours to find the right pair of pumps.

It looks like contextual e-commerce is poised to take off. PowerReviews and the e-tailing group found that nearly nine out of 10 U.S. online buyers surveyed read customer reviews at least “some of the time” before making a purchase. By cultivating an editorial voice and encouraging reader feedback, contextual shopping experiences like the ones readers get at SheFinds and MomFinds are positioned to take the most advantage of this trend – to the extent that shoppers want to hear from each other, they usually appreciate some expert advice, too.

In an American Marketing Association survey about shopping this past holiday season, nearly half of respondents who planned to visit a social networking site said they would search for gift ideas, download coupons and look for deals on social networking sites if they could, but only 31 percent said they would buy products on those sites. Shoppers are looking for ideas from their social networks, but may not be ready to commit to purchases without a virtual salesperson or girlfriend to offer some words of encouragement. In our experience, that contextual connection translates into sales.

Online fashion expert, style and shopping expert, Michelle Madhok, is the CEO of White Cat Media LLC publisher of SheFinds.com and MomFinds.com, sites that help busy women shop online.

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