The search for e-commerce 3.0
E-commerce – the term sounds nearly old-fashioned by now. Aren't we all doing our shopping online?
Start with advertising. "We don't fill empty [advertising] holes on websites any more, we engage customers," says Michael Lazerow, chief executive of Buddymedia.
More than 80% of online shoppers, says Ms de Rycker, let themselves to be guided by product reviews of their peers.
But Ms De Rycker warns that companies cannot just add a social component to their e-commerce operation. "Social," she says, "has to be part of the DNA of how you sell online."
And nothing is more social than games. Fantasyshopper.com is a British start-up based in Exeter, that has just gained the backing of a stellar cast of angel investors and venture capital firms (including Accel Partners).
Its website is a game, where people can use (free) play money to go shopping virtual versions of real products. Friends give feedback on clothing, recommend other outfits – and Fantasyshopper.com earns money when users click through to the real online shops and buy.
Launched one month ago, the website is growing rapidly in the UK and has plans for international expansion.
Chris Prescott, the founder and chief executive of the start-up, explains the appeal: "You're a young guy and you've bought two different pairs of jeans on Fantasyshopper. For one of them five girls say you'll look good in them, the other gets no votes. Which one are you going to buy in real life?"
The real game changer, though, will be the combination of social online shopping with mobile phones.
Smartphone owners are much more likely to abandon a purchase in a bricks-and-mortar store, because they can get instant reviews, feedback and price comparisons for products on the shelf.
"One in every three mobile (shopping) transactions is done while in a store," reports Ms de Rycker
But what if companies can turn this to their advantage, and deliver a good mobile shopping experience?
David Sable, global chief executive of advertising firm Young & Rubicam, calls mobile phones "the ultimate combination of digital and real life".
He says that they will not just change e-commerce as such, they will change retail itself.
Ms De Rycker says that as "mobile integrates social and retail, [it] will drive a whole new customer behaviour".
Andrew Mason, the chief executive of discount voucher firm Groupon (another of Accel Partner's many investments), told DLD that his firm was trialling a new real-time deal service, where users can check on their mobile phone whether any deals are on offer right now within a few blocks of their location.
As more and more people join the aways-on, always-connected world, the amount of information available to retailers is going to be of staggering proportions.
Cloud computing makes processing these data fairly easy. But which companies will be able to interpret the data in a meaningful way, and use them as a strategic asset?
Those that do will be the big winners of e-commerce 3.0.
January 27 2012 02:02 pm | Business