Shoppers are not the most decisive people when it comes to purchase planning, often needing third-party advice, validation, and recommendations from both friends and strangers alike. Shopper engagement thus becomes an important priority for retailers, lest doubtful shoppers drop off to third-party platforms (such as consumer review portals) to get the information that they want or, worse, to competing online stores that can offer a more holistic shopping experience.

Consumers consulting each other as a form of product research is common; take a look at the overwhelming list of “which should I buy” threads on Yahoo! Answers here. Most shoppers browsing an ecommerce website have a need for reassurance and third-party information in general, or at least overwhelming social proof, before they complete a purchase or even contemplate it. Any opportunity for shoppers to obtain unbiased, diverse consumer research information would thus be immensely helpful in building trust, which is a critical differentiator in the cut-throat online retail sector.

Since consumers are already helping one another make better buying decisions, or practicing social commerce, there lies an opportunity in baking this common experience into the shopping experience, right on the retailer’s own platform. One plausible tactic is to allow shoppers to consult one another on purchase decision-making, in real-time or otherwise, while still retaining them on the storefront. This appraoch (and indeed our approach) departs considerably from the idea of merely installing a message board that is separate from the sales funnel. The value proposition of this onsite social commerce strategy is two-fold: 1) expanding the traditional online storefront into a platform for consumer research leads to a tremendous increase in engagement and brand equity (e.g. the Amazon effect), and 2) shoppers with access to third-party information are more confident buyers, thus letting them complete their purchase during their moment of assurance is likely to save a non-trivial amount of sales that could otherwise have gone to a competitor.

This has long been a possibility that is largely ignored by the change-resistant ecommerce industry, despite the growing variety of social technologies available for socializing the storefront. Perhaps now is a good time to take a bold step forward and essentially give shoppers what they have always wanted.

While some brands are overly optimistic about the value of social media, others fear the effects of negative word-of-mouth so much that they try to minimize involvement in social media. As is well-known by now, conversations about brands and products go on with or without the brands themselves, and ignoring said conversations can be very costly. The crucial choice to make for brands is not whether to participate in social media but how to participate and harness social media activity effectively to their advantage.

At this point, it is crucial to draw the line between social media marketing and word-of-mouth marketing. Social media marketing fundamentally works on a B2C model, while word-of-mouth marketing works on a C2C model. The former has a striking resemblance to direct/traditional marketing, in that businesses retain considerable control over the content being marketed, and the only material difference lies in the platform of communication. The latter represents a far more democratized and self-sustaining marketing model that, while can be influenced or facilitated by businesses, is essentially driven and controlled by consumers. It is the latter form of “social” marketing that brands often fear for its potential negative impact (and similarly welcome for its potential positive impact).

Many businesses tend to confuse the two, thinking that common social media marketing tactics can achieve word-of-mouth marketing levels of success. There is often an expectation that bland, non-shareworthy marketing content would somehow become infectiously viral once kick-started by the business or content creator (after all, everyone dreams of being Blendtec). In other words, it is secretly hoped that consumers on social media would work their magic and turn a mediocre offering into a great offering. This paradigm, of course, is a severe misunderstanding of the nature of social media and word-of-mouth marketing.

Word-of-mouth marketing is essentially an amplifier. A good product would travel far and fast given the convenience and connectedness afforded to us by social media; a bad product would similarly be publicized as such. Social media is primarily a technological revolution, not a fundamental shift in consumer behavior. Poor offerings will spawn poor user experiences, which will very often be broadcasted on social media outlets. This phenomenon is basically what is often described as social commerce: consumers helping one another to make better buying decisions.

What are brands to do then, in the face of negative conversations? I believe that reputation management is vital, but beyond controlling the spread of fire, brands should see negative word-of-mouth as a great source of customer feedback and market insight and engage the community openly to build trust and rapport. Despite recent claims that consumers do not want to engage with businesses, I believe that social media provides brands a highly valuable opportunity to be more personable, accessible, and transparent to consumers. That, in itself, is one sensible and effective way to exploit social media to grow your business.