“Shopping” as social media integrated experience

Facebook announced its new shopping program, Shopping and Services, a few weeks ago. Today, Pinterest announced that it’s expanding the reach of its “Buyable Pins” from supporting Shopify and Demandware only to several more e-commerce platforms, including Bigcommerce, Magento, and IBM Commerce.

Furthermore, many big-name brands are also now coming on board, including Wayfair and Bloomingdale’s, and Thousands of new Shopify stores are being added, too.

Expanding from marketing tools to marketplaces, seems to be al least a promising area for social media platforms. According to Pinterest 93 percent of Pinners use Pinterest to plan purchases and 87 percent have bought something because of Pinterest.

http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/05/pinterest-expands-buyable-pins-to-more-e-commerce-platforms-reaching-thousands-of-merchants/#.sjsih3:psHU

TechCrunch: The Death of the Impulse Shopper

http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/20/the-death-of-the-impulse-shopper/

I thought this article was really interesting given our class discussion this week. As discussed, open access to information about product offerings is of use to the consumer beyond online shopping. As in the case of Best Buy, information from online is supplementing purchasing decisions for consumers and it is vital that brands think about online campaigns and promotions for their product, beyond information and well into online PR.

We Wish You A Mobile Christmas

The red cups are back at Starbucks which officially signals the start of the holiday season, right?

In all seriousness, with Thanksgiving around the corner, holiday shopping will be in full force if it hasn't already started for some of the eager beavers. With the increases in online shopping, industry experts agree that this will be the year for mobile. TechCrunch ran an interesting story on what this will mean including specific mention of trends in mobile and tablets. The basic gist is that retailers' investments in apps and integration of PayPal onto their sites will address the pending increases in online shopping.

But what I found most interesting was the integration of mobile into brick and mortar shopping. People are using their phones more and more to do comparative shopping at stores and find the best deals with apps like eBay's RedLaser which allows shoppers to scan a barcode and find products across multiple online and local stores including prices. Another app, ShopKick, is taking this even further by awarding loyalty points and discounts to consumers for going into participating merchants and performing actions like scanning bar codes or trying something on. The points can be redeemed for gift cards at the same participating merchants. So instead of killing traditional shopping, mobile is actually making it more rewarding. Brilliant!

http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/13/how-google-ebay-and-paypal-are-gearing-up-for-a-very-mobile-holiday-shopping-season/