digitalwellbeing.orgHow to thrive in our hyper-connected world

Social Shopping Test: +15% sales +50% average order value

DecisionStep, purveyors of fine social shopping toolbars to brands such as Mattel as Charlotte Russe have just released ROI data for their ShopTogether toolbar.

Working with German cosmetics brand, Hautbalance Naturkosmetik, specialist in natural and organic cosmetics, DecisionStep implemented their ShopTogether toolbar on the brand’s e-commerce site.  The result: 15% increase in sales and 50% increase in average order value.  Case review embedded below.

The ShopTogether social shopping toolbar allows shoppers to see what’s popular on the site at that moment (ShopTogether “Crowd”), shop together (co-browse) in real time with friends with a live chat tool (ShopTogether “Friends”), as well as “friendsource” shopping advice and “friendcast” opinions and purchases to and from social network friends and followers.

“Plug and Profit” social commerce tools such this are making social commerce a no-brainer for e-tailers.

DecisionStep Social Shopping Case Study with Hautbalance Cosmetics

Promo video for DecisionStep’s ShopTogether software:

Written by
Dr Paul Marsden
Leave a Reply to Paul Marsden Cancel reply

Add comment
  • But here’s the problem, Paul. Nobody is measuring this stuff. This is all willy-nilly “before implementation and after” where there are a million+ variables that make the outcome data false. Not even close to real. How did that week’s search campaign factor in? Radio ads? TV buys? Print ads? Catalog drops?

    While I’m happy to hear some data being released — and I think this is a great, worthwhile post — I’d be more impressed if I heard some discussion around the qualitative aspects of this data.

    • Hello Jeff, thanks for the comment, and for the constructive advice. Yes, a critical eye on claims makes sense.

      And yes, social commerce metrics are in their infancy, and can, and should, be improved. Correlational data is imperfect – especially when good analytics and A/B testing allow for ROI modeling.

      However, correlational data is a fair start and it’s the best that the vast majority of marketing (ad/promotional) can do (“we helped a sales uplift of x%…”). Of course, digital can do better…

    • Hi Randall, thanks for the comment. Good point, there are an increasing number free tools that can be deployed on sites to enable social shopping. However, many brand owners look for a turnkey service, multiple features, including analytics and reporting. Services such as the ShopTogether toolbar not only allow chat on a site – but also show what is popular on the site…

      But I agree with you; social shopping solution providers will need to keep innovating, keep adding value, and justify their price premium if they are to be successful.

  • This is a great write-up, I discovered your blog checking bing for a similar subject matter and came to this. I couldnt come across to much different information on this posting, so it was great to locate this one. I likely will be back again to look at some other posts that you have another time.

digitalwellbeing.org

digitalwellbeing.org

Digital wellbeing covers the latest scientific research on the impact of digital technology on human wellbeing. Curated by psychologist Dr. Paul Marsden (@marsattacks). Sponsored by WPP agency SYZYGY.