I met with some people from facebook today. They were covering their new consumer insight platform —a platform that allows marketers to garner insights from their 90 million-plus domestic membership. Based on the topic I wondered if the knew How are people on facebook using their social groups as advisors when purchasing new products? Although they did not have an answer,we did discuss methods to answer the question.
The topic intrigues me as of late. For many products advice from social groups typically is a primary influencer in products considered and ultimately purchased. For example,about 20% of new vehicle shoppers state friends and family were the primary influence ( more than any other medium).
This social factor has influenced people for years —my interest focused on the use of facebook as a “social shopping”tool for shoppers to make educated decision. By the way,don’t confuse customer reviews and testimonials as social shopping. Although both may influence a shopper’s decision,they lack the strength of social advice from someone the shopper knows. Someone the shopper trusts.
Asking the Right Questions
My perspective is the benefit of social shopping is related to the shopper’s inquiry. Social shopping questions can be unstructured and open ended (Anyone have advice on a new HDTV?) to structured (Anyone have advice on purchasing an HDTV for about $1,000? or What is a better deal the Sony Bravia XNT-1234 or Panasonic Vizio DDF-1234?). I believe the usefulness of the response will be more helpful the more structured the question. To this end I decided to test a structured question meant to give specific advice to an HDTV shopper (see below).
I am looking for a new LCD HDTV for about $1,000 to $1,200 What features are “gotta have”versus “nice to have”versus “not worth it”?
The goal of the post on facebook was to bucket responses in a way that I can use them. That is why I structured the question on positive attributes “gotta have”and “nice to have”,and negative attributes “not worth it”. Through this questions,I was hoping to tap into people within my network who recently purchased a HDTV,and focus on what they were thrilled about in their purchase and/or uncover aspects of buyer’s remorse.
Based on these expectations,the responses somewhat surprised me (see below).
Patrick Wmake sure it is 1080i other than that at least 2 HDMIi ports and your good. Buy at Sams club if ur a member they have best return policy in the world! Vizio is great brand for the money (it took two years but they worked out all the kinks in the last two model years) Samsung and sharp are also impressive but more pricey! Good luck!Jay GYou didn’t mention plazma,but compare the differences between the “black”on a plasma vs. an LCD. I don’t own either,but my brother in law has an LCD and swears the “black”on the plasma is so much deeper and clearer. He has mentioned it several times when he’s seen the in-laws tv. I wouldn’t have thought to notice that. Costco and Sams club both rule,but of the two,I give a slight edge to Costco.Jeff HI’m one to talk,since my newest TV is a 52″rear projection thats 10+ years old…but if you’re going to research,find out about these new LED Tv’s. They’re like 1″thick vs LCD which are 3-5″…(I’m hoping you do all the research and then report back!!)
Jimmy JCostco rocks. Check out the power consumption as well. My understanding I’d that plasma is very power hungry.Stevie GYou won’t get an LED in your price range. LCD is good for brighter environments,though I just got a Panasonic Plasma that is nice and bright.
Personally,I feel I found a shopper’s goldmine. As a shopper I would classify myself as a DIY’er —doing all the research,and making my own decision pretty much autonomous from social input. Many of my “DIY’er”purchases resulted in varying levels of buyer’s remorse (in other words,I can use the advice). Going forward I plan on using a combination of my own research and advice from the tech-thusiasts within my social group to make smarter purchases.
Eric,great info and can’t wait to see the comments to your blog post on others thoughts and views on this topic. What you wrote about is exactly the reason I just launched a new Facebook App called ShopTab. I have found it amazing how much I rely (and I know others too) on advice from complete strangers. This is why sites like Yelp.com have done so well with online reviews. For me though I rely on only my close friends for big brand purchases such as if I wanted to buy a Sony plasma TV. I have always wondered what other cool products are out there I have no idea about. Maybe Faceshop could help.
I really like to support the smaller business owner but with all that is going on in my life I do find it time consuming trying to locate products to consider. I think getting more products onto Facebook will be a good step for less known brands to get talked about. The challenge though is small business owners can’t afford the time and money on figuring out how to get their products onto Facebook.
Facebook allows awesome ways to build out custom tabs but you really need to be quite technical to figure out how to get your products onto Facebook. I am really excited to see what comes out of the future with social shopping on sites like Facebook.
I would be curious what others think and the tools they use to locate a product?
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by BT Expedite,Eric Bowe. Eric Bowe said:FaceShop? Makes you wonder when social shopping will go mainstream in #facebook. http://bit.ly/3aQZ02 [...]
Hey Eric,
interesting post. I particularly like the key,and often forgotten,aspect of trust.
Quick context,I’m the Emerging Media Manager at Best Buy and one of my roles is to lead the Facebook strategy. Feels a bit wanky,but yes,having a strategy for Facebook has become somewhat of a necessity. The team I’m on is also responsible for the creation of apps or platforms that will support our efforts to connect people with what they want,be it information,a service or a product.
Your article caught my eye because I’ve been thinking about the best ways to enable that trust factor you mention. It would be easy to create some sort of generic Best Buy product app for Facebook that simply enables a duplication of our .com shopping experience,but there’s nothing social about that experience and thus feels a bit empty. In fact we have something like that already that we are actively reworking. I notice that is the direction a lot of companies and marketers go is to simply duplicate the online shopping experience already existing on their e-commerce site. I suppose this could have some value,but again no social-ness is enabled.
The bigger question is are company created apps mutually excluded from enabling the trust factor you mention. I don’t think so,but for a company to enable the magic of trusted opinions between friends around that company’s products is tricky.
Have you seen any companies do this well?
Joshua,
To my knowledge no company has done a social buying app.
I do believe Best Buy,Amazon,or a retailer that sells high-consideration produts is in an ideal situation to create such an app. Several factors to consider:
1) Be the consumer. Research high-consideration purchase social dynamics. As I stated in my blog,I was somewhat surprised by my friends input to my HDTV solicitation. However,the more I thought about it,the more I realized this is how it works in the real world (i.e. you get input from experts and owners). I work for an automotive agency,and many people are influenced by friends,family,and business associates throughout the course of their purchase process. Not a surprise. An interesting parallel to my tech-thusiasts,is an autmotive enthusiast or someone who is passionate about cars. This person is probably one of the most,if not the most influential person.
In analyzing social interactions you will find out different social modes (e.g. researcher,brand loyal,owner) that can be captured within the app. These modes will help the person assess the importance of the information (e.g. first hand,second hand,opinion). Also,the analysis should look at different levels of the purchase decision (e.g. considering multiple products,analyzing needs versus features,finding the best price). By decomposing the question by where the shopper is in the purchase funnel,the app will move the shopper closer to purchase one question at a time.
3) Be Switzerland. I do think an Amazon or Best Buy can do this better than a product manufacturer (e.g. Apple,Panasonic,Sony),because they are not biased to any one product. Shoppers will be more willing to accept (and will not be suspicious) of a buying app from a retailer.
4) Be Best Buy. The app needs to be more about the activity,less about the retailer. For example,Sears runs a site called ManageMyHome.com. The goal of the site is to assist homeowners in planning and completing household tasks in a timely manner. The site experience is very well done,and you have to search hard to find out Sears sponsors/owns the site.
Like the Sears example,Best Buy can bring more to bear. Although the intent of the FaceShop app would be to get input from friends,Best Buy could integrate other assistance into the experience. Like the Unboxed Community,1-800 number,and assistance from personnel in local retail locations.
What are your thoughts?
Eric