Well, the holidays are upon us, and for many of us the thought of shopping the malls and walls of overwhelming merchandise can be a daunting task. The now everyday activity of online shopping that scared consumers in the early 2000's is now a part of life. Many consumers find shopping online to be as natural as putting on their pants in the morning. They shop online to find value and diversity, and to compare options. From Amazon to Zappos, the use of eCommerce for hunting down the perfect gift is a no-brainer these days. But things are changing in the digital shopping world.
The recent popularity of social shopping sites and applications such as Groupon, Living Social and more recently BuyWithMe show consumers' dedication to social commerce and perhaps it's a holiday trend that will last.
Advantages of Social Shopping
Clearly there are some real advantages to the consumer when it comes to shopping socially:
- Helping local businesses is a primary benefit of these social shopping sites. Shopping locally for deals and putting money back into your local economy is a tremendous benefit.
- Introduction to new products and services you may not have been familiar with in your area is another positive for this business model.
- The ability to self-select the type of deal you are interested in is a great feature to shopping socially. The ability to select areas of interest, such as dining, clothing and entertainment, for the offers you wish to receive is great and allows both the user and seller to home in on the right deals for the right audience.
- Most of these companies have mobile applications that can be set to ping you the offers you wish to receive.
- Last but not least is the ability to socially share these deals via your favorite networks like Facebook, Twitter and the still used but less dominant vehicle we call email.
Disadvantages of Social Shopping
With the good sometimes comes the bad. Here are a few things that may have a negative impact on consumers in the social shopping space:
- Some people rely heavily on this method rather than physically going out into their community to see what is out there.
- There is no true rating system like Yelp in place to give consumers an idea of the experience or product they are going to be investing in. It's a blind leap of faith for most of us.
- Too many consumers buying into deals could overwhelm a business with too many orders or participants. Typically, new businesses use these sites to churn up new customers, and this can backfire if they are not prepared to accommodate the high demand. This can make for a negative experience if a business is in the service industry and ruin future returns of customers if their first contact is negative.
Whether or not you are currently a social shopper, there is lots of room for this industry to grow and influence daily and seasonal consumerism. So if you haven't tried these services I suggest you do. And if you are a late holiday shopper like me, one of these sites could save you this year. But remember…going out into your local brick and mortar stores to support your local economy is a great place to start, and I guarantee you'll enjoy the experience more than shopping from in front of your computer.
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