LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Social commerce solutions are delivering substantial, measurable business benefits despite the current economic situation, figures show. Reevoo partner Jessops reports that social commerce tools have driven conversion rates up by 10 to 15% and that the level of business conducted online has increased from 8% to 28% in just 18 months. Another partner, Dixons Retail, reports that customer satisfaction with its ecommerce site has improved by 6% in the last nine months alone thanks to its social commerce-enabled site.
Such figures, against a backdrop of challenging economic conditions, are commonplace among retailers and brands that are successfully adjusting to changing consumer purchasing behaviour, according to Richard Anson, founder and CEO of social commerce company Reevoo and one of Europe’s pre-eminent social commerce experts.
“Over the past five years the consumer purchase journey has changed hugely; we now refer to it as the social purchase journey. People interact with each other, with brands, and with social content via the web, mobile, Facebook and in-store for example. But the critical fact to grasp is that there is no single, controllable journey; customers can choose to use any channel, at any point in their decision-making, and at any time,” he said.
“This change brings a huge opportunity for brands to inject trust, and trusted social content, at all touchpoints, in order to influence consumers in a trusted, transparent manner. Retailers like Jessops and Dixons Retail, which are embracing the social purchase journey, are enjoying positive benefits even in these difficult times – and it’s Reevoo’s mission to bring these benefits to as many retailers and brands as we can,” he added.
Aiming to make sense of the consumers’ new shopping habits for hard-pressed retailers, Reevoo has published a new ebook detailing the intricacies of the new social purchase journey. The Social Purchase Journey ebook is freely available from the Reevoo website.
Esther Soto, Head of Ecommerce Strategy at Dixons Retail, said: “Customer decision making and purchasing has changed, in three main ways. First: our customers are being much more careful when they purchase a product, and they’re researching much more than they used to do. Secondly, the traditional concept of a shopping journey doesn’t really exist anymore. What [our customers] have now is a number of touch points, and they interact with us when and how it suits them. On top of this, mobile and other alternative channels have just added a layer of complexity.”
Chris Scott, eBusiness Marketing Manager (Northern Europe), describes how Toshiba – a brand, rather than a retailer – has responded to the changing customer purchase journey. “What we’ve seen over the last 18 months is that customers are expecting all product information in one location. We’ve responded to this change in the customer journey by providing shoppers with all of the information they need to make a purchasing decision – reviews, ask-an-owner, videos and retailer links – to make the customer’s life easier. It’s about brand engagement pre-purchase. The result is that consumers stay on pages longer and propensity to buy has increased. We’re also seeing mobile becoming increasingly important: over the next two years, we believe 50 – 60% of our users will be on mobile devices.”
Sean Emmett, Marketing and Ecommerce Director at Jessops, said: “People used to use Jessops to research products, but didn’t always go on to buy from us. We’ve increased the amount of advice, reviews, and content on our site so that when customers do their research at Jessops they then go on to actually purchase either online, or through our stores. The big advantage for Jessops is that a lot of customers still prefer to actually come in store to make the final purchase: we find that over 60% of our orders are actually researched and placed online, and then collected in store. Providing the best multi-channel experience is great for Jessops because it allows us to continue their journey, adding further advice and value to the customer when they pick their camera up from our stores.”
Dixons Retail’s Esther Soto says that Dixons will be keeping its foot on the pedal in terms of staying ahead of the game with social commerce: “The market continues to evolve, so we need to be agile and nimble enough to adjust to what our customers are demanding from us at any given time. We will continue to partner with experts like Reevoo to make our customer experience as enjoyable and effective as possible.”
Notes to editors
1. For more extensive quotes from Dixons Retail, Jessops and Toshiba, watch the Social Purchase Journey video (5 minutes).
2. Follow the link for images that help to illustrate the social purchase journey: social purchase journey images.
3. Reevoo’s freely available ebook on the social purchase journey contains many more quotes which may be reproduced, in context and with suitable reference. Quotes include:
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“The reality is that just like most other things in life, there is no one thing that makes something happen. People use a variety of methods to make decisions using a combination of tools and resources.” - Frank Reed, Marketing Pilgrim |
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“Customers have been providing user-generated content for a decade through reviews, forum posts, uploading photos, etc. Sharing tools now enable more eyeballs to see this fab content, and, even better, the eyeballs know the fingers who created the content.” – Linda Bustos, Get Elastic |
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“In highly complex sales situations, participants in the buying process come and go. They may enter the process at the stage of needs specification, only to depart when alternatives are evaluated, or they may participate only when demonstrations are given, for example.” - Dr Jeff Tanner, MyCustomer |
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About Reevoo
Reevoo (http://b2b.reevoo.com) is Europe’s leading provider of social commerce solutions. Reevoo has been deployed by more than 140 major brands including Sony, Best Buy, Tesco and Dixons helping them to achieve average sales uplifts of 18% through boosted conversion rates and increased order values, turning browsers into shoppers.
Reevoo has solicited more than 2,500,000 pieces of independent, impartial social content from genuine customers. To help consumers make their purchase decision, Reevoo provides easy access to this content more than half a billion times every month to shoppers across the Reevoo network.
Reevoo’s consumer website (http://www.reevoo.com) also presents shoppers with everything they need to decide what to buy, including impartial customer reviews, price comparison, expert advice, product information and voucher deals.
Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6868446&lang=en