Hi.

For those who have been following our progress through some way or another, we would like to provide a little insight into the team and history behind our flagship product, Zuupy. Our product development team currently comprises two developers: myself, Alvin, and my colleague, Huy. We have complementary skills, with me primarily taking responsibility for product design, including front-end development, and Huy doing everything else (“hardcore” coding, if you will). As you can probably guess, we have been working tirelessly for several months now to design, develop and refine the product, so the release of a Beta version is something we eagerly anticipate.

Basically, Zuupy is our take on how to truly leverage on social media to drive ecommerce, much in the spirit of social commerce. Bill Zujewski of ATG defines social commerce in this way: “Social commerce is about customers having the means to interact with one another in order to make better buying decisions.” For months, we have observed and followed closely what we believe to be a gradual convergence of social media and ecommerce, arguably the two most potent forces on the web. Meanwhile, the rapid emergence and growth of certain social commerce startups (e.g. Groupon, PowerReviews, DecisionStep, Kaboodle, TurnTo) have somewhat inspired us to enter this exciting space.

When we decided that the social commerce industry might be a worthwhile market to explore, we noticed that there were two major paradigms of social commerce when it comes to social technologies for businesses. First, there is infusing social media into ecommerce. Second, there is infusing ecommerce into social media. An example of each would be Fluid Social and Payvment, respectively. The rationale for the latter is essentially that consumers spend most of their time on social networking websites anyway, so it makes sense to reach out to and directly engage these consumers in their native space and hopefully generate sales.

We subscribed to the former, however, as we believed that social media storefronts present inherent limitations, such as issues of control and detraction from core offering (especially with the tempting Facebook “Home” button being so conveniently within reach). Infusing ecommerce into social media has the effect of decentralizing the brand’s online presence and giving more power to social media platforms. Our belief is that to profit from social commerce does not necessitate a predominant or even extensive presence on social media platforms.

We believe that porting social media elements to online storefronts has two major advantages: extensive integration with existing infrastructures and greater control over the range of social experiences that can be created. With technologies that socialize storefronts, the retailer’s website is the host platform, thus social media elements can be manipulated more effectively by the retailer to fit its precise business needs.

Specifically, onsite social tools can be used accordingly to mitigate a host of buying blockages, from a general lack of reputation to point-of-sale hindrances. For example, a confused buyer who is hesitant or clueless about purchasing a certain product would be able to get shopping advice plus social validation from their friends, as opposed to reading random “reviews” from unknown, anonymous users whose credibility and authenticity are questionable. This can help to significantly reduce cart abandonment and boost conversion rates. This is the rationale behind co-browsing applications like Plurchase and Clavardon. Another application of social tools on ecommerce websites is social cross-selling, through which visitors can see what their friends have bought on the website itself (examples include TurnTo and Blippy, though Blippy is a B2C platform). This would clearly have a direct positive impact on the retailer’s average order value.

By now, I have hopefully provided you with an idea of how social commerce tools can potentially drive ecommerce and multiply sales. Zuupy is an onsite social widget that hopes to unlock the powerful energy of social media to create new sales opportunities, all on the retailer’s storefront. Do view our slideshow below to get an overview of what we do (FYI, Fezzl is the holding company of Zuupy):

P.S. I would love to hear from you on anything. Do drop me a line at alvin@fezzl.com.

Best regards,
Alvin Tan (CEO & Co-Founder)
Doan Duc Huy (CTO & Co-Founder)
http://zuupy.com