This week 8thBridge rolled out a new platform for social commerce called Graphite. If you remember, 8thBridge was the first company to enable the selling of merchandise on Facebook with its 1-800-Flowers store back in 2009.
WebProNews spoke with Wade Gerten, 8thBridge’s CEO, who told us that the new platform creates a shopping experience that goes beyond Facebook stores. Graphite actually allows consumers to tell their friends about brands they like in their existing shopping channels.
Gerten told us that both consumers and brands benefit from the new platform because it doesn’t take either party out of his comfort zone. With Graphite, Facebook is used as more of a platform for discovering products through friends. The transactions, however, can be made on the brand’s website, in its brick and mortar store, or whatever channel the consumer would normally visit.
Brands such as American Apparel, Hallmark, Elle, and Oscar de la Renta have already partnered with 8thBridge in the launch of Graphite. Gerten said that we should expect more in the near future.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Apr 25th, 2012. 
We often talk about social commerce in future terms – what’s in development, the ‘next big thing’, how eventually social commerce will hit its stride and we’ll find ourselves smack in the middle of ‘the year of online commerce.’ And like any savvy person who thinks the best is yet to come, we might hold off on fully embracing the potential of ecommerce, and wait to create and build that all-important first online store, convinced that thenext social media development will be the time to strike.
Well, here at Gloople we say the time to strike is now. Make no mistake, this is the year of social commerce, ecommerce, f-commerce – however you think of it – and so are many, many years to come. Don’t think in terms of years when thinking about social commerce. Think decades – think centuries. Think – time to get started.
Time to start building that online store. After all, it’s predicted that sales from social commerce will reach $ 30billion worldwide by 2015. And social sharing will be at the heart of that. Your customers have discovered how easily and seamlessly social media lends itself to social shopping – in less time than it takes to think about a purchase, they can ask your friends, colleagues and family what they think. They can create and share exclusive discounts through GroupBuy, and they can rate, review and recommend their favourite purchases. Are those your products they’re purchasing?
Are you up to speed? Now is the time to research your target market(s), if you haven’t done so already. Who are your most profitable customers? Who convinces people to make purchases and share discounts? Is it the ones with 500 Facebook friends…or those with a few, close, trusted ones? Until you research, you don’t know, and if you don’t know, then you can’t capitalise on your knowledge. And capitalise you will, when you think that 90% of buyers trust recommendations from those they know, and 80% spend more money online as a result of a recommendation.
Time to bring social media to your online store. Facebook is a great place to start your social media journey, with 100m users regularly sharing their latest purchase and pushing reviews to their networks. Add a Like button and watch your business grow.
It’s clear your customers are reaping the rewards of social sharing in the world of ecommerce – but are you?
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Dec 9th, 2011.
Facebook is becoming a portal for many activities, so why not add shopping to the mix? This is exactly what Sneakpeeq is trying to do. The app prides itself with creating an offline shopping experience online.
Henry Kim, the company’s President and Co-founder, spoke with WebProNews and explained that the app uses Facebook own social tools to emulate an offline shopping environment. Since shopping is a social experience and Facebook has mass traction, Kim told us that the two fit together perfectly.
Sneakpeeq also plans to further its social integration as Facebook’s new changes are fully rolled out.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Oct 13th, 2011.
