Online Shopping on the Rise
First, sales are up.  Internet sales surged this year, and online retailers saw a 15.9% increase in sales from Black Friday 2009 to Black Friday 2010. The average price of online orders jumped 12% from 2009, and the first 26 days of November saw an increase of up to 13%. (Read more)

Foursquare Check-In’s and Black Friday Sales
While Foursqure users only represent a small portion of those who visited stores on Black Friday, many retailers used the service to offer deals for users who checked-in on their mobile phones. In a recent AdAge article, they revealed the most-checked-in retail stores on Foursqaure, citing that despite large promotional campaigns by companies like Sports Authority, the retailers that really shined when it came to check-ins were companies such as Walmart, Best Buy, and Target with the latter having almost one quarter of all Black Friday check-ins.

Cyber Monday Breaks a Record
Online sales for Cyber Monday reached a record high and surpassed $1 billion for the first time in history, according to ComScore. It is estimated that online shoppers spent roughly 16% more than last year on the same day. With more money invested into online promotions, and more advertising spent on social platforms, Cyber Monday saw 4% (9 million) more online shoppers spending roughly 10% more then last year based on (data compiled by Mashable).

Accounting and consulting firm, Deloitte, reports in its 25^th Annual Holiday Survey that, 72% of respondents said they would utilize the internet this holiday shopping season and 17% of them would use their smartphones in the process. An additional 12% said they would use social media sites such as Facebook to aid them in their purchasing decisions. Of those consumers that said they would utilize social media sites, the reasons they gave included: gift ideas, coupons, discounts and promotional information; which should prove very useful to retailers as the clock ticks closer to Black Friday.

Web analytics firm, Coremetrics, found that social media will be among the top five most effective ways to attract new visitors to stores and websites. “The thing that is really interesting is that the second best channel for getting new visitors has turned out to be Facebook,” says John Squire, Coremetrics’ chief strategy officer.  The result, retailers should see more people in their stores, both brick and mortar and online, and consumers are primed to save a tremendous amount of time and money.

Who is Doing What?

Retailers are already jumping on the geo-location bandwagon and using notable platforms such as Foursquare and Facebook Places to drive people into stores.  Facebook is opening up its 500 Million-plus subscriber base to retailers in the hopes of taking on the geo-location industry leader, Foursquare. Merchants like Starbucks, McDonalds, and H&M have already created promotions, and earlier this month The Gap used Facebook Places to give away 10,000 pairs of jeans across 900 of their participating US stores.

JCPenney is no stranger to online promotions and boasts nearly 1.2 million Facebook fans.  The company is wrapping a Black Friday sweepstakes that offers 15 lucky Facebook fans a shopping spree where JCPenney shopping experts will be their personal escorts. The company has also partnered with The Salvation Army for a holiday season-long Angel Giving Tree campaign that helps children and seniors in need. Additionally, rather than let shoppers leave Facebook, they have integrated an online shopping experience directly into their Facebook page.

Lowes, the home improvement retailer, launched a Black Friday campaign called “Lowe’s Black Friday Sneak Peek Party on Facebook”.  Fans RSVP’d to the event by Friday, November 5^th which gave them early access to tremendous deals.  Customers were given coupon codes of up to 90% off products on their website. The event was so popular that Lowe’s actually extended the event from Friday through the entire weekend.

Kmart is using Facebook and Twitter to promote their extended Black Friday sales and a Christmas trip sweepstakes while Urban Outfitters and Levi’s have integrated the Facebook “Like” button into their online stores, allowing customers to sort products based on the ones “Liked” most frequently – making it real easy for you to buy for someone who loves those brands.

Social shopping is also playing a much larger role this year than in years past. Sites like LivingSocial and Groupon offer great daily deals to subscribers and the latter has branched out to working with national chains like The Gap and The Body Shop.

The Gap recently offered $50 gift cards at half price through Groupon while The Body Shop offered $40 worth of merchandise for $20. Many thousands of customers participated in these Groupon deals and we expect to see many more retailers participating in similar offerings as we get closer to the holidays. LivingSocial plans on launching a promotion called the 12 Days of Gifting, a program that will offer 12 days of giftable deals, ranging from fine dining to retail stores.

This season, both the retailer and the consumer are benefiting greatly from technology.  As a retailer, the opportunity to drive people into your stores has never been better.  As a consumer the chance to save money, time and aggravation is equally as exciting. Hopefully the end result of your social shopping experience will make you, well… more social!

What follows is an excerpt from Larry Weintraub’s latest post to his Smart Marketing Blog that highlights the new trend of Social Shopping.

A year ago if you had asked me about social shopping I would have pointed you to Amazon and told you that the product reviews from actual buyers were examples of social shopping.  Six months ago I would have told you about shopping aggregation websites like Kaboodle which allow you to view, comment, and receive deals from multiple retailers.  Two weeks ago I would have told you about the new Facebook integration into websites like Levi’s “Friend Store” and how you can see what your friends like.  And today.  Well today I’d tell you it’s all about what I call the Discount Crowdsourced Shopping Experience (DCSE) being powered by Groupon, Living Social, Gilt, Blackboard Eats, Wines Til Sold Out (WTSO) and more.

A few months back I wrote a post about a new business ready to take off.  What I described there was the advancement of location-based applications like Foursquare, Gowalla, and MyTown combined with recommendation websites like Yelp and Citysearch, and how they were providing huge opportunities for shop owners to drive people into their stores.  DCSE’s go the next step and offer discounts to drive you into these stores.  All of these DCSE’s are essentially mailing lists and you get regular (often daily) deals sent to your inbox.

Click HERE to read more

The holidays are just around the corner and no doubt you’ll be doing a lot of shopping. If the idea of going into a department store makes your skin crawl, then you are probably turning to the Internet to avoid those snarky sales clerks long lines and virtually non-existent parking spaces.

Have you noticed all the great features that retail sites now have to help you with your shopping experience?  Amazon started it a few years back when they introduced customer ratings.  This helped you decide which particular digital camera to buy based on comments from real people and not just professional critics.  Best Buy recently one upped Amazon by enabling you to ask your friends what they think of your potential TV purchase if you go to their Facebook page.

Meanwhile if you shop on Hot Topic’s website, you can tweet to your friends how you want to look like someone from Twilight this Christmas.  Go to a site like Kaboodle.com and you can entrench yourself in a whole social shopping experience where you can meet people just like you who are looking to make purchases and you can do comparison shopping and create wish lists. Trust us, holiday shopping has gotten a lot easier thanks to social shopping features that most retailers are utilizing this year.

Retailers got bit by the Social Media bug and bit hard. With this new found wild west of marketing opportunities in front of them, retailers big and small are gearing up for a very social season; which includes brand and product Facebook / Twitter sites, populating them with shipping offers and discount codes to developing online promotions and even scavenger hunts that engage as well as connect us to brands as consumers decide on their online expenditures.

The past few years alone has brought the modern-day shopper light years beyond the weekly circular and television ads. Even banner ads seem so yesterday when online communities such as I Like totally Love It and the aforementioned Kaboodle present and encourage a philosophy of how much more fun it is shopping with friends.

A spate of recent articles reflect the increasing popularity of the social shopping trend; a piece by Reuter’s, Nicole Maestri talks directly about companies keeping up with consumers thirst for social media, while AdWeek’s Brian Morrissey reported that the secret to brand social popularity is discounts.  All of this ties nicely into a recent statistic that comes from the Brand Experience Study stating that 97% of people’s digital experience had an influence on whether or not they purchased that particular product or brand. That’s pretty strong stuff.

Facebook and Twitter have become the social media outlets of choice for retailers that are trying to generate additional buzz around their product offerings this season according to a new Shop.org report. Brands that have jumped into social media with both feet from early on like Best Buy with its Twelpforce and Target with its Daily Deal are building a loyal community of followers and participants. Retailers that utilize social media to further brand themselves will only grow as they welcome more consumer interaction in the way products are sold, purchased and marketed.

From free shipping and discount codes to a forum for discussing new products and accessing real-people reviews, consumers have a remarkably interactive connection to how to research and purchase, unimaginable just a few short years ago.

Shopping has not only gone social, it just got a little more exciting!

It’s called a Webcam Social Shopper and it brings the changing room right into your living room (or office, bedroom – wherever your computer resides).  Words can’t properly explain this, you have to watch the video demo…

View Video Demo