5 Things That Will Enhance Your Social Commerce Presence (and Increase Sales too)

>First, it’s important to believe to your core that Facebook will be the pivotal platform for consumer-to-consumer sharing, significantly increasing referral traffic for all who believe and act.  Why?  Because in addition to its billion-ish user base, Facebook is almost complete with its “frictionless sharing” plan – Facebook Timelines, Tickers and soon-to-launch Actions.  In addition, you need to believe that consumers will become increasingly comfortable authorizing Facebook to share specific information with their friends and with retailers, which also will drive increased commerce.  We recently published a study that measured Facebook authorization rates of consumers – which averaged  50% -- which we believe will increase to 60% by year-end 2012.

Here’s what I recommend doing with these beliefs:

1. Make Your Website the Social Centerpiece

The ecommerce site will be the dominant place consumers go to buy products they learn about from their friends on Facebook. Our consumer research shows a significant preference for retail websites to actually make the purchase. The best place to motivate consumers to share product comments with their friends on Facebook is also your site, where they’re focused on evaluating and committing to the product you want them to share. And, in 2012, social integration tools (tools that add social features to your website) will include A-B testing so you’ll have the tools to try-test-and-improve different experiences and offers to optimize for the highest sales uplift on your ecommerce site.

Active Network is using Sociable Labs’ “Social RSVP” application on its Active.com purchase confirmation pages to increase sharing with friends on Facebook and drive high-converting traffic back to its site.

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