SOCIAL
COMMERCE
8
Learning Objectives
 What is the relationship between social
commerce and e-commerce?
 How do ratings and reviews provide value for
consumers and e-retailers?
 How do social shopping applications and tools
affect consumers as they move through the
consumer decision-making process?
 What are the psychological factors that influence
social shopping?
© Tracy L. Tuten and Michael R. Solomon 2015
8-2
Figure 8.1 Social Commerce
© Tracy L. Tuten and Michael R. Solomon 2015
8-3
Social commerce is a subset of
_____________
E-commerce
Social Media Marketing, 2e©
Today over 82% of those who
conduct research about purchase
decisions online also ______
Shop online
Social Media Marketing, 2e©
__________ refers to situations
where consumers interact with
others during a shopping event.
Social
shopping
Social Media Marketing, 2e©
The process of shopping in terms
of the stages of consumer
decision making require what five
steps?
Problem recognition,
Information Search, Alternative
evaluation, purchase, postpurchase evaluation
Social Media Marketing, 2e©
ZMOT stands for ________
Zero Moment
of Truth
Social Media Marketing, 2e©
The moment a consumer chooses a
product from the store shelf is
the ________ and the _______is
the moment the consumer uses the
product and feels satisfaction or
dissatisfaction.
First Moment of Truth,
Second Moment of Truth
Social Media Marketing, 2e©
______ are assessments with
detailed comments about the
object in question; ____s are
simply scores generated by users
that reflect assessments of
attributes like perceived
quality, satisfaction, or
popularity on a scale
Reviews /
ratings
Social Media Marketing, 2e©
Ratings are a __________; a
mental shortcut consumers use to
help them with decision making.
heuristic
Social Media Marketing, 2e©
Increasingly, reviews are
questioned. Why?
Deception – estimates are
30% are fraudulent
Social Media Marketing, 2e©
Among the social commerce sharing
options, virtual galleries where
users can share their creations,
shopping lists are sometimes
called _____________
User curated
shopping
Social Media Marketing, 2e©
Groups of people who meet online
to communicate about products and
help each other solve related
problems.
User forums
Social Media Marketing, 2e©
Among the Best Practices to Leverage
Social Reviews and Ratings, _____ is
defined in Chapter 8 as acknowledging
opinions that were invited,
incentivized, or facilitated by the
brand.
Transparency
Social Media Marketing, 2e©
Among the Best Practices to Leverage
Social Reviews and Ratings, _____ is
defined in Chapter 8 as the idea that
online opinions are so influential
because they live on in perpetuity.
sustainability
Social Media Marketing, 2e©
The most commonly cited reason
given for not allowing online
reviews on business’ sites is the
fear that dissatisfied customers
will use the review feature as a
venue to _________ a brand.
flame
Social Media Marketing, 2e©
Of the sources of influence, when
a lot of people select one option
(e.g., a clothing style or a
restaurant), we interpret this
popularity as ________
Social proof
Social Media Marketing, 2e©
The second source of influence is
________, that persuades with the
opinion or recommendation of an
expert in the field.
authority
Social Media Marketing, 2e©
________ sometimes called “liking,”
means that people tend to follow and
emulate those people whom they find
attractive or otherwise desirable.
affinity
Social Media Marketing, 2e©
Social Shopping
Social shopping refers to situations where
consumers interact with others during a shopping
event online.
Our shopping
companions, known
among marketers as
purchase pals, help us
to think through our
alternatives and make
a decision.
©
8-21
Figure 8.2 Social Shopping
‘the story of David’ –’drag to a
mall’
8-22
Why do we shop?
 Get things we need
 Get things we want
 Shopping is an activity that we can perform for
either utilitarian (functional or tangible) or
hedonic (pleasurable or intangible) reasons
 What motivates human behavior? Think back to
some of the points from previous discussion:
understanding why people do things
8-23
The Decision-Making Process
Problem
Recognition
Information
Search
Alternative
Evaluation
Purchase
PostPurchase
Evaluation
8-24
The Marketing Value of
Social Commerce
Ratings and Reviews
Recommendations and
Referrals
8-25
Benefits of review
 Reviews result in better site stickiness—
customers reading reviews will stay at a retail site
longer than they would otherwise.
 They can also enhance the effectiveness of offline
promotional strategies: Rubbermaid added
review comments from its website to the content
included in its freestanding inserts.
 When reviews were included, coupon utilization
increased 10%.
Social Media Marketing, 2e©
8-26
Benefits of review
 Lastly, the reviews and opinion posts become a
source of research data for the business,
highlighting consumer opinions in a frank yet
unobtrusive fashion.
 Businesses can learn whether consumers like a
competitor’s brand better and why, how
consumers react to positive or negative press,
what stories are being spread about the brand,
and which customers are being evangelical and
which ones are acting as “brand terrorists.”
Social Media Marketing, 2e©
8-27
Who has a smart phone, etc.?
 Let’s make some buying decisions…
 Pick a restaurant in Mesquite
Social Media Marketing, 2e©
8-28
Who has a smart phone, etc.?
 Let’s make some buying decisions…
 Book a flight to Las Vegas
Social Media Marketing, 2e©
8-29
Who has a smart phone, etc.?
 Let’s make some buying decisions…
 Find a hotel room in Las Vegas
Social Media Marketing, 2e©
8-30
Who has a smart phone, etc.?
 Let’s make some buying decisions…
 Find a show in Las Vegas
Social Media Marketing, 2e©
8-31
Social Commerce Strategies
 Share tools
 Recommendation indicators
 Reviews and ratings
 Testimonials
 User galleries
 Pick lists
 Popularity filters
 User forums
8-32
Social Commerce Strategies
 Share tools
 social software plug-ins that enable easy sharing
of products sold on a retailer’s website to social
networks.
 The most popular plug-in today for retailers is
Pinterest.
8-33
Social Commerce Strategies
 Recommendation indicators
 simple buttons that provide an onsite
endorsement of a product.
 The most common options are Facebook’s “like”
and Google’s +! buttons
8-34
Social Commerce Strategies
 Testimonials
 a form of recommendation that enables users to
share a more personal story about their
experience, possibly as a video endorsement.
 Refer back to ‘traditional media’—spokesperson
approach might be an endorsement or a
testimonial
8-35
Social Commerce Strategies
 User galleries
 virtual galleries where users can share their
creations, shopping lists, and wish lists.
 This approach is sometimes called user-curated
shopping
 may occur onsite or offsite with a community like
Wanelo.
8-36
Social Commerce Strategies
 User forums
 groups of people who meet online to
communicate about products and help each other
solve related problems.
8-37
Best Practices
 Authenticity – accept organic WOM (including
negative WOM)
 Transparency – acknowledge opinions that were
invited, incentivized, or facilitated
 Advocacy – enable consumers to rate the value of
opinions
 Participatory – encourage consumers to
contribute reviews and ratings
 Reciprocity – acknowledge the value of consumer
opinions
 Infectiousness – make it easy to share
 Sustainability – remember opinions online live on
8-38
WOMMA Guidelines for
WOM Marketing
 Educate people about products
 Identify people most likely to share opinions
 Provide tools to make it easier to share opinions
 Study how, when, and where opinions are shared
 Listen and respond to supporters, detractors, and
neutrals
8-39
Refer back to to the idea of
deception
 Handout
 CNN
8-40
Influence and Social Shopping
 Why do we do what we do?
 Social proof
 Authority
 Affinity
 Scarcity
 Reciprocity
 Consistency
8-41
Influence and Social Shopping
 Social proof
 When a lot of people select one option (e.g., a
clothing style or a restaurant), we interpret this
popularity as social proof that the choice is the
right one.
8-42
Influence and Social Shopping
 Authority
 Authority persuades with the opinion or
recommendation of an expert in the field.
 Whenever someone has expertise, whether that
expertise comes from specialist knowledge and/or
personal experience with the product or problem,
we will tend to follow that person’s advice.
 Diffusion of Innovations – Two-Step Flow
8-43
Influence and Social Shopping
 Affinity
 sometimes called “likin,”
 means that people tend to follow and emulate
those people whom they find attractive or
otherwise desirable.
 If we like someone, we are more likely to say yes
to their requests or to internalize their beliefs and
actions as our own.
8-44
Influence and Social Shopping
 Scarcity
 We tend to instinctively want things more if we
think we can’t have them.
8-45
Influence and Social Shopping
 Reciprocity
 The rule of reciprocity basically says that we have
an embedded urge to repay debts and favors,
whether or not we requested the help.
 Reciprocity is a common norm of behavior across
cultures.
8-46
Influence and Social Shopping
 Consistency
 People strive to be consistent with their beliefs
and attitudes and with past behaviors.
 When we fail to behave in ways that are
consistent with our attitudes and past behaviors,
we feel cognitive dissonance, a state of
psychological discomfort caused when things we
know and do contradict one another.
8-47
Recap and Questions
 What is the relationship between social
commerce and ecommerce?
 How do ratings and reviews provide value?
 How do social shopping applications affect the
decision-making process?
 What psychological factors influence the social
shopping process?
8-48