Sometimes the simplest social commerce solutions are the best.  In social commerce, simple means simply adding customer testimonials and content to a website to make it more compelling and persuasive (adding customer content adds “source credibility” to communication). HSBC’s online bank, First Direct, is doing this – in realtime – harnessing the power of the [...]

As ClickZ start a new column on social commerce, e-commerce software giant ATG have started their own series of social commerce articles.  The first (archived below), by Bill Zujewski, answers the familiar question – what is social commerce?  ATG’s answer: “Social Commerce is about customers having the means to interact with one another in order [...]

A new presentation posted today to SlideShare on social commerce trends by @hediyeevsan (in German).  The presentation offers examples of private shopping clubs and events in Germany, and discusses retailer H&M’s use of social media. Trends im Social Commerce (Social Shopping am Beispiel von H&M) View more presentations from Hediye.

So to round off 2009, the year of the realtime web, here are the top 10 social commerce highlights that captured our attention. 1 / 1-800-Flowers Claims First Retail Transaction Inside Facebook – at 11:50 am EST on July 8, 2009 1-800 Flowers. Is this the future for monetizing the social web? 2 / Toy manufacturer Mattel starts selling [...]

With social media marketers increasingly seeking to monetize their efforts, the social commerce toolbox is growing. And it can be difficult to keep up with what’s out there.  So here’s our attempt to organize social commerce into six dimensions, each based on a general toolset, with a quick review and our own rating of the value [...]

Inspired post by John Bell on the evolution of social shopping over at the Digital Influence Mapping Project. In addition to the standard social shopping fare of soliciting friends opinions, reviewing ratings or reviews by strangers or friends, group buying, finding endorsements from friends or ‘strangers with expertise’, wish lists and registries, affiliate sales networks (e.g. Amazon) and relevant recommendations (e.g. [...]

5 Mashable Hot Social Shopping trends courtesy of Clay McDaniel of social media marketing agency, Spring Creek Group, and then five more from his readers and us.  Clay asks the pertinent question – “what is social shopping?”.  Alas no answer is offered, only a list of illustrative examples.  Good examples though. 1. Instantaneous Product Reviews – [...]

eConsultancy has been producing reports and presentations on social commerce since 2007 – and it’s insightful stuff. So we’ve distilled their work into a top 10 list of social commerce insights and predictions. Sources (some public, some members only) and accompanying facts are listed below. Top 10 Social Commerce Insights (Top Takeouts) 1. Social commerce is [...]

Post over at DecisionStep (ShopTogether software – and behind Barbie’s foray into social commerce), predicting that we’ll be seeing social commerce apps on travel sites soon. Of course, most travel sites (e.g. TripAdvisor.com) already include social commerce apps in the form of user ratings and reviews – but what DecisionStep see is a future where people [...]

A well thought through post by Darpan Munjal on social shopping opportunities for retailers, over at the Commercewiki.com blog. The short version: Darpan sees 3 distinct social shopping opportunities – for both pure-play and clicks and mortar retailers – to help shoppers shop smarter by ‘friendsourcing‘ trusted advice from personal contacts in social or shopping networks. Opportunity [...]