Retail goes social
Perhaps it’s the inspiration of Zappos and its pioneering use of Twitter. Maybe it’s the success of Best Buy, whose Twelpforce has turned employees into an online service and support staff. But retailers everywhere are jumping on the social train. And well they should.
Today shopping happens anywhere: offline, online, on the go. And shoppers can connect and share every step of the way. Mobile utilities make it possible to find a product in a store and quickly order it for less somewhere else. Services like Groupon deliver daily and or regional discounts providing the crowd responds. Platforms such as Placecast offer all of us a chance to opt-in to offers and messages from our favorite retailers entirely on our own terms. And multi-feature apps such as Springpad (note they’re a client and I serve on the board) will soon actually hunt down the best prices for products you’ve saved to your wish list.
In fact it’s only a matter of time before consumers can issue their own RFI for a given product type or even a specific brand.
So what are retailers doing besides the obvious presence on Twitter and Facebook? Lots of stuff. In the last couple of months I’ve come across the following. My guess is it’s just the beginning.
Uniqlo sets the bar
If non-stop experimentation and creativity is your criteria, check out Uniqlo. Their constant fashion innovation extends into social media. For example, UTweet takes all your Twitter content and gives it a cool new look. They’ve got something new every month or so and all of it is designed to engage with customers, connect them to each other and inspire them to pass it around. This is a brand that’s being social rather than doing social.
JC Penny hires haulers
Among the many phenomena brought to us by YouTube are haul videos. Shoppers sharing their most recent purchases. Don’t ask me why, but some of these young women have thousands of followers and hundreds of thousands of views. (Amazing what we are interested in.) JC Penny figured, “Why not have them haul home stuff from its stores?” Give some of the popular ones a couple of gift cards and turn those haulers into customers and advocates all in one fell swoop. No doubt we’ll see more retailers trying to leverage the influence of the individual.
Kohl’s crowdsources customer stories
Again, you may ask yourself why, but it appears we want to share everything and even pay attention to what others are sharing. Kohl’s figured this out and created a simple site where customers could hold up receipts, sharing what they bought and more importantly how much they saved. Granted $100 prizes helped generate participation, but shoppers showed up and shared as much because they wanted recognition and inclusion as they did the money. In a matter of weeks Kohl’s got thousands of customers to share their purchases and brag about their savings. Note: Kohl’s worked with This Moment, whose platform lets them create a unified brand experience across all the social networks, from YouTube to Facebook to Kohl’s own site.
Diesel introduces social dressing rooms
This is pretty cool. In Spain, Diesel created the Diesel Cam, essentially connecting mirrors right outside the dressing rooms directly to Facebook. When you try on an outfit you can log in, upload a photo of yourself in your new jeans, and solicit immediate feedback and “likes” from your friends. We all want the opinion of people we trust and who better to watch our backside than our friends? Social shopping, whether it’s via our iPhone and a quick TwitPic or full-blown installations like Diesel’s, is definitely here.
K-Mart post gamers’ online reviews in-store
This one couldn’t be simpler. K-Mart invites its video game customers to review games online and possibly have them appear in-store as POP right on the shelf where the game is sold. You get your review and your name front and center for other shoppers to see. Ups your gamer cred and makes you feel part of the franchise. We all know it’s easy to post comments online, but to have them displayed as a miniature billboard? Much cooler.
Retailers may still be addicted to FSI’s and the offline tactics they’ve always depended on, but if I were in the Sunday circular business, I’d be even more worried than I already am.
If you’ve seen other cool retailer uses of social media, please share. I’m taking up a collection. Thanks for reading.
Comments
OMG, this is awesome, Edward. I have to say, seeing that video changed my perception of JC Penny *more than any advertisement they have ever done.u00e2u0080u009d To give away gift cards to haulers u00e2u0080u0093 what a stupidly simple idea, and yet it worked. I went from u00e2u0080u009cI would never be caught dead in JC Pennyu00e2u0080u009d to u00e2u0080u009chuh, not only are they cool, but that necklace and dress kind of rocked.u00e2u0080u009d
Sorry, but social media changes everything. Hereu00e2u0080u0099s what I take away from this:
1) Find groups of people sharing the same stuff. Give them some of your stuff to share.
2) You said it Edward u00e2u0080u0093 donu00e2u0080u0099t just get u00e2u0080u009conu00e2u0080u009d social media u00e2u0080u0093 use it to change your business.
3) For example, I can see the next step will be to have girls like the one in the video being buyers for the brand.
4) From an individual standpoint, social media is so compelling because it breaks down the u00e2u0080u009cgatekeeper wallsu00e2u0080u009d wherever you go. Now u00e2u0080u0093 youu00e2u0080u0099re a brand u00e2u0080u0093 and guess what. YOU have to help break down those walls or perish. Make your customers a part of your business. Let them in. Let them change you. Because change you they will.
Thanks, as always, Edward, for the observations and insights!
This post has two points, the second being brands are engaging fans in new ways (nice), but the first being the spectre of commoditization that threatens all brands a shoppers gain access to tools and networks that can share perfect pricing information.
It would be nice to think the second (fan hooks) would solve the first (consumer disloyalty), but I'm not so certain. In any spectrum of consumers, there are lovers, and haters, and a vast apathetic middle, and it is this middle group who rarely thinks about you who drives most revenue for many brands.
I'd be interested in a future post Edward on how new social tools can address the apathetic middle, and fight the commoditization that is arising as I learn to check my handset to find out the jeans are on sale for $10 less at the store down the mall.
Thanks for provoking the thought, as always.
Hi Ben, great points, but don't brand lovers (say about 20%?) drive 80% of revenue? Does the 80/20 rule apply here? Or, are you talking about incremental revenue only?
Agree that social shopping is changing the retail game and that less price differentiation will result. But while getting the best or a comparable price is important, it won't be the only thing that drives my business. I want what I want when I want it - the style, size, color or model - along with a fast and easy shopping experience that caters to my needs.
Seems to me there are a host of opportunities for niche markets, loyalty programs, exclusive items and more. :-)
Thoughts?
Will think about that, Ben. My sense is that product brands will do OK via hunter apps like Springpad (client) but retailers will be challenged. Multiple aspects to consider: consumer control, consumer sharing re decisions and purchases, brands allowing customer voice and participation, and new kinds of tools and communities that could influence and change the retail model itself. And that's before we even consider cause supporting retail like the Uniform Project.
Retail has just started to scratch the surface of social. These samples are certainly great examples of pushing the edge. There's also an interesting social shopping website brands can tap called Jasmere, where the more friends you get to buy a product, the lower the price goes. www.jasmere.com.
As emotional as shopping is, particularly value shopping, I'm certain we will begin to see/create much more complex social systems to support the desire. Thanks for the post, Edward.
Gretchen
No doubt. And I only focused on big stores. Doesn't even address the new, smaller innovative projects or even the new platforms like Shopkick, just out and already getting attention from Best Buy and others.
Edward, read what Ben Kunz wrote in his comment. Then read it again. His point about the commoditization of brands is a very big thought. Technology and socially-enabled price shopping is killing brands faster than any ham-fisted marketing campaign or poor product execution ever could. It's a HUGE issue. Price as lowest common denominator is a terrible destination for a brand. It kills any possibility of emotional connection and funding of key future innovation.
A very big economic issue on many fronts.
Ala Ben's thoughts, I am banking my startup on ways to engage that vast apathetic middle, who are at the end of the day human beings who respond to other human beings with a story. (Or more precisely human beings with a product and a story.) Our ideas for our daily product stories come straight from community...we are already doing that RFI you mention but not just to serve one consumer. We can disrupt the entire consumer economy by organizing people to surface, share, and support the "good guys."
On your RFI for an individual, though, check out how etsy.com lets you post a request for a product/craft and get immediate proposals. Very cool.
You really have to look at startups to see the really groundbreaking innovations marrying social and retail. They move faster and have no legacy issues. Existing retailers are a bottleneck to product innovation and the real opportunity is to let that explosion of innovation in the product development communities get straight to the people, skipping right around traditional distribution systems. J.C. Penney is not having people truly shape who they are, and what they sell. And that is the really big change forming.
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