What is social shopping? It’s essentially a mashup that resembles social bookmarking, social networking and comparison shopping in a blender. A bunch of flavors of social shopping websites have popped up as of late, creating a great opportunity for online retailers to engage in some low-cost word-of-mouth marketing.

We’ve hunted down a number of different sites that you can submit your retail products to, and provided a brief summary of each site’s features. Since you never know where a sale is going to come from, it’s worth it to get into as many of these sites as you can and track which bring success and which are just a hassle.

Social Shopping Bookmarking Sites (or “Social Wishlists”)

These sites allow you to bookmark, tag, share and even blog products you like. Some allow you to join groups or even earn revenue from your picks.

Here’s a tip: if you’re going to submit your own products – tag with reckless abandon. Browse popular tags for ideas (as they will be surfed often) and also more targeted, specific terms, to maximize your likelihood of being found using search boxes.

	Join groups, create wishlists, email products to friends, add product lists to your blog or MySpace, and easily submit products here.
	Add a bookmarklet to your browser and off you go. Search for products by category and user lists, add friends, join groups and comment on products and people. Kaboodle auto-creates product descriptions when you bookmark items.
	Wists (weblists - get it?) gives users a way to keep all their wishlists in one place, rather than in each individual e-store. The description copy and paste may seem tedious but gives you more control than Kaboodle’s autogenerated description. And if you want to encourage bookmarking, Wists’ got a chicklet. See Wists in action.
	In addition to the typical bookmark / add comments / join groups / add friends options, you can also “follow” your friends or random stranger style mavens a la Twitter. And they’ve included a social media 1.0 feature: a forum.
	Yet another bee-branded social shopping site … WhatsBuzzing is the Stumbleupon of social shopping. Users browse storefronts, rather than individual items to discover e-stores and get ideas before going comparison shopping. Tag storefronts, add to favorite list and add friends. You can’t submit your store, if you’re buzzworthy they’ll find you.
	Bookmark products, email to friends, and subscribe to RSS feeds of other users’ picks. Doesn’t look like you can add friends — yet. There’s 2 ways you can add your product: enter the name, URL, or UPC code of the item or add a browser icon and bookmark a product from it’s product page. And you can “Shopcast” by adding a badge or feed of your list to your blog. Kudos to the designers, the blog posts look really slick.
	Lacks the social features like adding a community, but you can tag your items. Unfortunately it’s attracting a lot of irrelevant spam that appears at the top of all product listings (with no images) and the design is nothing compared to other sites, nevertheless a site to submit products to.
	Pick products from MyPickList’s merchant network, earn commissions from a number of stores and share a slideshow of your pick list with a widget supported by a number of blogs and social networks. Add friends and message users. If you’re listed in Amazon, Buy.com or other participating merchants, you can get in on the action and recommend your own products.
	Social by virtue of being a wiki, add a product, subscribe to RSS feeds, tap items as “love it,” “want it” and “have it.”

Social Deals and Coupons Sites

	Find deals on specific items, browse posted coupon codes and special offers from Dealplumber’s database, or post your product or affiliate product coupons. “Free Stuff” and “Free Shipping” categories, too. Pipe your products here.
	Free listings for merchants, woot-woot! Add a button to your bookmarks toolbar or submit your deals here one by one. Join groups, tag, browse, and keep your peeps updated with Twitter tweets.
	Submit deals, rate, surf, repeat. You can also earn revenue when people click on AdSense around your posted deals. (Sounds like an invitation for click fraud…) This site is really in its infancy, with not many deals, categories or members, but a one to watch.
	Social dealmarking with community voting — best deals rise to the top. Deals come from sites like Dealnews, BensBargains, Woot and from registered users.
	Just like Dealcritic, but with much better organization/categories, and options to subscribe to RSS feeds for hot deals, all deals and freebies. Plus Dealspl.us runs giveaway contests. An added incentive to invite friends, if they win a prize, you win too.
	Like a deal search engine. Users submit deals and then vote on them, but the site lacks tags and categorization. Users must browse the “popular” list or use the search box and hope for the best. Posting a deal is easy.

Social Comparison Engines

Now for some gray-area social shopping sites. The following are comparison engines which have either social shopping features, or a free way of submitting your own products to them, and thus being worthy of honorable mention here for etailers looking to cast a broad net over sites that we believe are going to take off.

	A visual search engine that lets you zoom in on a detail of a product and see similar items based on colour, shape, pattern, price etc. Categories include watches, shoes, handbags, jewellery, clothing. Etailers can add individual products, or email to submit a feed or link. Helps if you have an affiliate program, you may pay per click or per sale, Like.com supports both models.
	This ain’t your Grandma’s online craft fair. Modern Etsy exlusively lists hand made products, with a whack of Web 2.0 goodies that makes Etsy so sticky — including the Geolocator and Shop by Color. Users can create their own lists in the Treasury. Merchants get a free username.etsy.com account for free, and can list products for $0.20 per quantity, with a 3.5% of sales fee. Listings live for 4 months.
	Crowdstorm is like MySpace, Digg and Shopping.com in a blender. You can build your social network, “Recommend” products (Digg-style voting system) and search and browse products like any comparison shopping engine. It’s easy to submit products, but here’s the catch — users will be directed to Amazon or Ebay to make a purchase. So this works best if you’re an etailer already using these channels.
	Sound like a place to unload your Redwings Bobblehead collection? Think again. Hawkee is a social network for tech afficianados where you’ll find user-posted coupons and deals, product reviews and code snippets in addition to comparison shopping. Hawkee uses feeds direct from retailers, not from other shopping engines so drop them a line for more info on getting listed.
	Fivelimes is an eco-friendly shopping community where you can find sustainable products and services. Browse by categories (no tags), shop locally or browse reviews. Submit a product URL you know about, or join the Vendor Program which works on a cost-per-click basis.
	Crawls the web picking up products from etailers on its own. Unfortunately some products are outdated. Really cool color search feature. Doesn’t accept merchant product feeds but you can add your e-store URL here. Or read more about getting listed.
	The social sister of comparison engine Buy.com, at Yub (Buy in reverse) you can shop for over 6 million products, receive cash-back discounts, and shop with your friends. Write reviews and earn commissions when users buy through you. The Meet People feature is tres MySpace. Another reason to get listed in the Buy.com marketplace.
	Yahoo! Answers approach to the purchase decision. (Run by Yahoo! Shopping, guess where product results come from). Hint: if you spot a “powwow” (thread) related to your e-store’s products, you can drop a link in there. Sell individual items Craigslist-style by starting a new pow-wow and uploading an image from Photobucket.
	Like Yub, offers members discounts, splitting their affiliate commissions with the buyer 50/50. Advertisers are ranked my how much discount they offer buyers. Works on a “Cost per Sale” model so advertisers can keep a fixed return on ad spend. Send Jellyfish and email to join the merchant program. And did I mention Smack Shopping - Jellyfish’s Deal or No Deal-style online Dutch auction? (Just check out the link for a great video explanation &/or listen to Smack Talk about Transparent Shopping - Get Elastic #30 from eTail West)
	Site looks great, but not the most intuitive site to figure out (what’s the “Download” for?). You can earn 25-50% affiliate commission on products “suggested” from the Usuggest merchant database. Tagline is “Shoppers Helping Shoppers” but may end up more like “affiliates selling to affiliates”…and we know affiliates will always buy from themselves. Needs a widget to post to blog to market outside of the community. Unfortunately no information on how to add your products to their network.

Definitely are interesting space to watch and we are all curious about how the social shoposphere will evolve, however more awareness among the general public is needed. So go sign up and tell ten friends!

Did we miss your favorite site? Something you want someone to build? What missing from social commerce site? What’s the real value? Drop us a comment to share your experiences with social shopping.

UPDATED AUGUST 6, 2007:

By now you know about Elastic Path’s OEM relationship with BEA. The analysts have blogged about BEA’s re-entry into ecommerce and we’ve been spreading the word our customers and prospects (many of whom are already using some BEA components).

Since the announcement a few months back, some of the EP crew met up with our new colleagues at a BEA soiree somewhere in some bright shiny city in Nevada and learned about what BEA’s big platform picture looks like.

Importantly for us too, they started conversations about how AquaLogic Commerce Services (the BEA-i-fied version of EP) fits in to this map (BTW, this is also a common topic on Josh Lannin’s ALCS blog).

Aeroplan differentiates themselves by being an innovator and finding new ways for customers to use their “miles” from spa treatments to donations to Schools Without Borders who use the miles to get volunteers to needful places (note that Aeroplan won a middleware integration award too).

Anyhow, now with a few months under the relationship belt, we are beginning to see the joyful results of the joint efforts with the release of a BEA/Aeroplan study called “Next Gen Loyalty Marketing” (.pdf).

You may recall the Aeroplan case study I wrote last year - well this report goes a step further into their technical workings and describes the total infrastructure experience using (you guessed it) BEA’s AquaLogic pieces to solve a tricky puzzle - elegantly and efficiently.

Here are a few snippets to peruse and the whole report (BEA and Aeroplan Case Study - Next Gen Loyalty Marketing) is attached as .pdf for your homework.

“Our business was changing dramatically and we needed a business platform that would allow us to turn all of our creative ideas into reality,” said Remi Lafrance, Director of Technology—Architecture, Strategy & Operations at Aeroplan.

{snip}

Aeroplan considered a number of options and ultimately selected BEA WebLogic Integration as the backbone for a revamped infrastructure and BEA AquaLogic Commerce Services for storefront and back-office operations. The infrastructure is based on a service-oriented architecture (SOA).

“We evaluated platforms based on robustness, price, and a real-world proof of concept,” said Lafrance. “BEA demonstrated to us that it was the right choice to address our business requirements. The feature set, reliability and support for open standards were very impressive. It is truly a business enabler.”

{snip}

Among the unique aspects of Aeroplan’s business, and an important competitive differentiator, is the ability for members to redeem miles for hotel rooms and car rentals in real time and completely online. No other loyalty program offers that type of redemption.

“It is a tribute to BEA AquaLogic Commerce Services that we’re able to integrate with travel service providers to offer our members such valuable rewards,” said Lafrance. “Car rentals and hotel bookings can be complex transactions involving real-time inventory and price management. By eliminating the big technical obstacles, AquaLogic Commerce Services helps us make travel planning faster, easier and more convenient for our members.”

The BEA solution is running in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux environment. The primary database system is MySQL.

{snip}

“The robust feature set in BEA AquaLogic Commerce Services has helped us to diversify our product offerings, expand our business partnerships and eliminate some barriers to revenue growth,” said Lafrance. “We’ve become more effective at converting customer contact into revenue. Our business has increased significantly and we have a strong foundation for future commerce growth.”

Linda.gooruze.com

Sometimes writing candidly about the company that writes your paycheck (or in Canadian, cheque) can be a dubious arrangement. Additionally when writing about an industry (ecommerce in our case) and trying to be at least sorta objective is hard when you really want to speak frankly about your company’s solution but not look like you are a shill.

I don’t identify myself as a “corporate blogger” but rather a person acting as the inside source on (non-confidential) company info plus general banter about what we are up to and what I am learning as I hang out with co-workers, especially the smart ones ;-).

Jason digs deep into the nuance of ecommerce and Tom kicks down some great developer tips and tricks, however we’ve sought someone to talk about ecommerce trends but someone who is not in the office with us all day. The aim, to defeat the echo chamber and bring in some fresh ideas.

Enter Linda Bustos - she’s in our mix here in VanBC - we hang out at Vancouver’s Barcamp and other ‘geekfests’ - and we read her engaging and enlightening social media blog - Smogger (where she blogs as postergirl). She is also rocking some web development and Internet marketing projects at a Vancouver Web design factory, specializing in Drupal so she gets big techie points.

I find Linda has a particular knack for assembling lists and wrap-ups. Indeed, as a chronic podcaster, I have referenced her podcast directory list many a time. And now she’s diligently (well i assume anyhow) at work on a comprehensive wrap-up report of social shopping / bookmarking sites (like those guys at Jellyfish).

She’ll also be writing some practical informative research pieces for Get Elastic … taking a look at EP - what we do and how we fit into the big picture of the ecommerce space and open source community with the cutting edge techniques rockin’ from the fingers of the diligent developers - usability, testing, design, analysis … that kinda stuff.

The fact that she blogged about Canadian cult legends and erstwhile ambassadors Bob and Doug McKenzie’s upcoming anniversary special scores big hip points too.

So one more ecommerce geek blogger for your money (you’ve mailed in your cheque right?). And remember … this blog takes requests - topics, songs and/or jokes - we’re here all week.

On the eve of the Tri-Coastal E-commerce Trade Show Summer Tour, Dave O has a quick chat with Andrew, a friend of Elastic Path, about the upcoming shows.

Including:

• ACCM in Boston - booth #453 - http://www.accmshow.com/accm07
• Book Expo America in NYC - booth #1429 - http://www.bookexpoamerica.com
• Internet Retailer in San Jose - booth #1325 - http://www.internetretailer.com/IR2007/
• eTail UK in London - http://www.etailuk07.co.uk

They share some hockey stories and marketing anecdotes along the way and invite you to stop by the booth at any show to say hello and score some premium EP schwag.

MP3 File

Add to Cart buttons – they may be small, but no online retail store can do without them. These little, rectangular, sometimes colorful clickables connect the product to the shopping cart and are an extension of your branding. It’s important to put some thought into what your “Add to Cart” icon looks like in your shopping cart.

We’ve collected over 100 Add to Cart buttons from the top online retailers of 2006 to give you some design inspiration. And we’ve summarized some usability guidelines that you can apply to your own Add to Cart button. Ok, there are actually 111 shopping cart icons, but 107 just looked cooler.

And now for some stats, because percentages make it cooler.

How the Add To Cart Button Can Reinforce Your Branding

At first the “Add to Cart” button may seem like a minor detail, but it has the potential to create an emotional connection with your brand. Your choice of shape, color, font and button text all affect that connection.

Urban Outfitters’ felt pen lettering echoes the brand’s edgy, street persona (it may however be at the expense of findability as it does nothing to stand out on the screen). Northerntool’s plus sign icon resembles a screwdriver head. Petsmart’s little red doggie ball is fun, playful and instantly recognizable. Bloomingdale’s signature “big brown bag” icon captures its cachet. And Polo’s timeless, deep navy blue button brings harmony between its online and offline identity.

Button text is also of great importance. “Add to Shopping Bag” sounds more appropriate for high end department stores than “Add to Cart,” which is more believable for a WalMart or Target. “Order Now” may work for long time catalog brands now accommodating online orders. In the UK, “Add to Basket” is more prevalent terminology.

Button Design and Usability

Button Text

Web copywriting emphasizes scannabliity — perhaps the golden rule of web copywriting is don’t use 5 words when three will do. How much more should this rule apply to a small button? Nevertheless, we found 15% of the top etailers going long. Harry and David’s “Add To My Shopping Cart” — though personal — is a mouthful.

“Buy Now” may be a stronger call to action than “Add to Cart”, but may subtly suggest the user is finished shopping or is making a commitment to purchase without time to review the order. The beauty of “Add to Cart” is that it is non-committal and assumes the user is still looking around. And if you’re a good e-salesperson, you’re showing suggested products and a “continue shopping” link from view cart page (or you are using an in-line cart with Ajax’y goodness).

Text Formatting

General web usability guidelines recommend sans-serif fonts with high contrast color selection (high-contrast white on black or dark blue rather than low-contrast like Chadwick’s blue-on-blue).

All-caps are generally discouraged in web copywriting. Mixed case is the easiest to read, although all lower case is also easy. We found 45% of “Add to Cart” buttons using all-capitals. Walgreen’s slaps white all-caps text on a light colored, tiny button with a gradient and an icon, forcing some users to squint.

Button Placement

If you offer helpful features on your product pages like wishlists, enlarged photos, color switching, alternate product views, email to friend, size chart, view cart or check out buttons, make sure the “Add to Cart” button is obvious, bright and prominent in comparison. Less important functions can be lighter colored buttons or simple text links.

Stacking Text

Stacking text is not a good idea for links or navigation buttons, and the same goes for “Add to Cart” buttons. Users have come to expect some form of rectangular shape, and when quickly scanning a page, it may take longer to distinguish button from decoration, and even become frustrating. No need to reinvent the wheel, stick to the convention.

What if You Use A Button From a Template?

Even if you don’t use a custom designed “Add to Cart” button for your shopping cart, choose a button that complements your site’s theme (complements does not infer it must be the the exact same color). And make sure you pick one design and stick with it. Ecommerce thrives on trust, and random buttons erodes customer confidence.

What do you think is the best button in the collection? What about elsewhere on the web?

This morning, we circulated a press release about the Ecommerce Checkout Report and the forthcoming companion Webinar to the report. PRWeb does a great job of making the press releases more social with insta-links to share, save, and publicize via many social bookmarking and aggregater tools. Plus Jason’s mug shot is attached - great for desktop wallpaper!

But really, … Check out the ready made pdf of the Ecommerce Checkout Report as well and/or subscribe to the Elastic Path Press Release RSS feed or just read the spiel here and ’socialize it’ if desired.

New Ecommerce Research Sheds Light on Checkout Myths

The study looks at ecommerce checkout strategies at the Top 100 Online Retailers to determine which tactics are used most and work best. The report is free to download and requires no registration. A companion webinar, hosted by report researcher Jason Billingsley of Elastic Path Software and web marketing expert Stephan Spencer of Netconcepts, will be held May 17th, 12pm ET to discuss the findings in depth with full attendee interaction.

Vancouver, BC (PRWEB) May 9, 2007 — We assume a prominent return policy, site security badge, and shorter checkout process will lead to an increased conversion rate, but is this truly the case? Many online retailers are both time crunched and resource strained. They are unable to legitimately test which tactics do and do not work. Unfortunately, when determining which best practices to adopt, decisions are often based on hunches and not fact.

A new report evaluates the checkout strategies of the Top 100 Internet Retailers and seeks the correlations between the checkout tactics and success rates. The Ecommerce Checkout Report observed top performing online stores for 23 specific checkout characteristics affecting the customer experience in three categories 1) speed and ease of use; 2) security and confidence; and, 3) profit enhancement.

The report attempts to answer questions like: Does a shorter checkout process really decrease shopping cart abandonment? Should you use an order confirmation screen? Does live chat improve conversions? Study samples included a variety of vertical market groups including apparel and accessories, computers and electronics, and both high and low ticket value product retailers.

Interesting findings within the report:

• Conversion rates were nearly double at retailers selling high ticket priced items when coupon code entry was not available.
• Conversion rates were a full 40% higher where Top 100 retailers did not request a CVV (Card Verification Value), yet over 55% of them do.
• 36% of Top 100 retailers offer alternative payment options such as PayPal, Bill Me Later, or Google Checkout, but conversion rates were convincingly higher at retailers who did not offer alternative payment types - more than double at retailers selling high ticket value items.

Principal report researcher, Jason Billingsley of Elastic Path Software — an ecommerce software vendor, explains, “Our goal with this report is to give online retailers a yardstick for comparing the effectiveness of their own checkout strategies. Hopefully, it will give them incentive to start testing tactics that seem to be most effective for increasing conversions.”Beyond the complimentary report, readers can hear anecdotal commentary at an upcoming Webinar on May 17 at 12 p.m. ET with panelists Jason Billingsley and noted industry expert Stephan Spencer of Netconcepts. Webinar registration is free and the format will allow for questions to the experts. The collected conversations will form the basis of a follow up prescriptive report including objective recommendations for improving conversion rates in specific industries.

Read The Ecommerce Checkout Report and companion blog series (no registration is required):
Ecommerce Checkout Report and companion blog series

Sign up for the interactive webinar:
Ecommerce Checkout Report Webinar

ecommerce online+retail etail elastic+path conversions conversion+rates white+paper retail+tips net+concepts webinar netconcepts

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You may remember the Get Elastic podcast conversation with Rob Weber of Intellifit from last February’s eTail West event in Palm Desert - Dressing Intelligently for Success - Get Elastic #28. If you were wondering what the machine he spoke of looks like, you are in luck since I’ve dug out a clip of their standard process in action.

The machine (if i recall correctly) measures your body’s details by bouncing some sort of spacey waves against the water on your skin - clearly I have no idea what I am talking about so listen to the interview and watch the video to see for yourself.

By the way, I was measured by the virtual ftting room tube at the show. Later, I logged in to Intellifit.com and ordered pants, choosing from the pre-measured sizes from Intellifit-ified vendors (Levi’s, Gap, Polo, Nordstrom, Land’s End etc.) and sure enough, they fit perfect!