At the same time, social media is continuing to impact retail in a variety of ways. Sprout Social says that 74% of people rely on social networks to guide a purchase decision – and I’m not surprised. With word-of-mouth marketing becoming an increasingly important consideration for retailers, ecommerce and marketing teams must work together in order to ensure the strategies and programs are in place to impact social references.

The rise of online sales and the growing importance of social media collide to create a significant opportunity for retailers over the upcoming years. Many innovative retailers have discovered that social commerce is what happens on their own website when they integrate social elements like social login, social sharing or the ability to shop with friends into their existing online shopping experience. The future of social commerce lies within leveraging the popularity of social networks to grow sales at the retailer’s own site.

Take a look at three examples of retailers doing this well and what they’re doing.

Samsung Highlights Strong Product Reviews

Shoppers most often turn to consumer reviews when it comes to seeking information on product performance and quality before they buy, so presenting authentic user-generated reviews on product pages provides an opportunity to increase purchase conversion. People want to know what other people’s real-life experience with the product has been like, and whether they’d recommend it to a friend.

A recent study by Weber Shandwick reveals that the most influential reviews include key elements: they seem fair and reasonable, are well written, and contain product specifications and technical data. When you have all these elements of good reviews, a best practice is to highlight the very best like Samsung does.

UGG Expedites the Checkout Process

UGG is doing a great job of focusing on the shopper’s checkout experience and removing obstacles that could possibly interfere with a purchase. They know that 86% of consumers admit to leaving a website when faced with a registration form so they also offer social login as a means to create an account while expediting the checkout process. Shoppers can choose to use their Facebook, Google or Yahoo! profile to pre populate some of the required fields and bypass those hurdles.

And if shoppers leave the site before purchasing those boots, UGG sends them an email reminder. With social login, UGG collects a verified email address to use in remarketing efforts. One click from this email and the shopper is back at their cart, ready to checkout with those boots.

Macy’s Taps Into the Social Graph

Shopping is a social experience, and one of the main reasons is that we like to ask our friend’s for their opinion on our purchases. Macy’s gives online shoppers tools to get that type of feedback on products from their friends using a polling widget on their site.

From any product page, shoppers can create a poll by adding a few products that they’re interested in to the tool. Once the poll is created, the shopper shares it directly to their Timeline for friends to see, along with a message asking for their opinion by voting for a product.

48 hours later, the shopper has input from her friends on products that she’s interested in, and Macy’s has earned impressions from her friends by tapping into the shopper’s social graph.

When you look at commerce leaders today and those making the headlines, many are being recognized for demonstrating innovation in these key areas and responding to shopper’s expectations for a more social experience when shopping online. These retailers are finding that the technology exists to not just offer a consistent brand experience online but to truly take the online shopping experience to a whole new level.

What innovative examples have you seen where retailers integrate social elements into their online shopping experience?

Consumers trying to log in and take action are highly valued. So, let’s see – what options do we give these valuable consumers when they have login challenges? We let them try a few passwords. I don’t know about you, but the more passwords I try, the more annoyed I become. Or, we may let them work through a number of security questions in hopes they will remember the answers to arcane questions about what they ate for lunch last Thursday. And, we supply the “Forgot Password” option, forcing the consumer to access email for instructions on password resetting. That “Forgot Password” email is often one of the top performing email automations. No surprise there — you’ve got an active, engaged audience ready to take action, yet, you’ve put a major hurdle in their way. It can get even worse if you end up with a frustrated consumer calling for support. That’s time and money down the drain for both the consumer and the company.

As we are deep into Holiday 2012, with Cyber Monday online spending soaring to $1.46 Billion and holiday season ecommerce increasing 16% versus the corresponding days last year (comScore), the year ahead is poised for strong online retail performance. Mobile also continues to surge into the 30 – 40% range of site visitors for many online retailers, with a profound impact on site activity and conversion. With all this action and opportunity at hand, it’s an important time to reflect on what can be done to enhance engagement with consumers and pave the way for action.

That’s where social login comes in. With social login, you preempt a bad consumer experience and prevent virtual aisles packed with abandoned shopping carts. Today, over 77% of consumers prefer social login and it’s a clear starting point on the road to consumer engagement, conversion and an overall better experience. Janrain customers, such as L’Occitane, are already driving a 12.05% lift in conversion rates since deploying social sign-in.

It has been said that “showing up is half the battle.”  Once the work is done to acquire a consumer that is ready to take action on your site, half the battle has been won. From there, it’s about removing any hurdles that prevent consumer action. With key holiday online shopping days behind us and 2013 coming up fast, it’s time to line up new ways to acquire more customers, understand them better and engage them in actions, not distractions.  Beyond that, there’s a lot more to say about the rich data set social login helps to harness. More on that later.

How have you overcome the conversion hurdle on your site?

This means that Demandware customers can now enjoy the many benefits of JUMP already being realized by our online retail customers like Sears, Guitar Center, Whole Foods, and Illy Cafe. These and other commerce customers are realizing increases in registration conversions, decreased cart abandonment, a reduction in false user data, and improvement in customer service calls as a result of a forgotten password.

The majority of these benefits come from a unique combination of social login and a robust registration system which ensures that retailers obtain the data they need while letting online shoppers register and subsequently login faster. The ability to pre-fill registration forms with verified social profile data becomes all the more important as shoppers spend more time on mobile devices and struggle with text entry on small screens.

Benefits for shoppers

• 77% of shoppers prefer social login for fast registration and checkout

• Shoppers can share products, reviews, and purchases to social networks or targeted to a select group of friends
• Shoppers never have to remember, or recover, a site-specific username or password

Rather than paying for data append services, retailers are embracing social login as a source of permission-based, cost effective and rich shopper data including verified email and shipping addresses, interests, and demographics for use in targeting, personalization, and product recommendations. However, making this data available to 3rd party systems like recommendation engines is frequently done on a one-off basis. To save both time and development efforts, we have included support for the open source Backplane Protocol in our LINK cartridge. The Backplane Protocol broadcasts user identity, and profile data to trusted applications on a website, making it easy for retailers to plug and play vendor applications such as polls, reviews, and content personalization tools.

Benefits for retailers

• 30-50% increase in registered users
• Decrease registration drop-off and cart abandonment due to new account creation requirements which drive 86% of shoppers away from your site
• Eliminate the false data provided during sign-up by 88% of shoppers who admit to providing inaccurate data to create a new account
• Drive word of mouth marketing through social sharing which returns an average of 13 referral clicks for each shared activity to a social network

Features for retailers

• Social login from more than 25 identity providers including PayPal Access, Facebook, Google, Yahoo!, Twitter, and more
• Customizable, hosted registration screens include social and traditional registration, pre-filled social profile data, CAPTCHA, opt-in, field verification, dirty word filters, password reset, and profile management
• Collect and store rich social profile data in a flexible hosted database for use with targeted communication, personalization, or recommendations based on demographic and interest data
• Map social and traditional identities to a single user record
• Multi-site sign-on enables users to move from within your network of sites without re-authentication
• Analytics provide insights and performance into shopper acquisition and social referrals
• LINK certified for reliable and rapid deployment

Our Digital and Social Media Strategists and commerce experts are also available to share best practices, develop wireframes, and walk retailers through the planning process so that the implementation is easy. Best of all, for retailers who aren’t ready to implement the complete JUMP-based registration system, the LINK cartridge makes it easy to start small by adding social login to an existing registration and login system.

If you are a current Demandware customer or considering the Demandware eCommerce platform, contact us to learn more about the Janrain LINK cartridge and the top retailers already leveraging Janrain for user management and social engagement.

Social Login

Customizable Hosted Registration Screens

Social Sharing

Last month we proudly announced a new partnership with a leader in providing loyalty and rewards programs to the retail industry, 500friends. What this means is that retailers can make it easier for their shoppers and customers to engage with them while building loyalty, increasing registration conversion and decreasing cart abandonment. All critical goals that lead to increased online sales, right?

To celebrate our partnership, we are participating in 500friends’ The Win/Win Challenge where they will reward $25,000 or 1,000,000 airline miles to the online retailer that leverages their LoyaltyPlus product to create the best customer experience.

Ready to enter? Here’s what to do:

1. Learn about 500friends’ LoyaltyPlus and the benefits you can expect when you combine loyalty marketing strategies with social features

2. Check out the official rules for The Win/Win Challenge

3. Sign up to win!

Want to earn extra points towards a win? Integrate Janrain social login, which they make easy to do, and earn bonus points! Your customers will be happy you did since social login is preferred by 77% of consumers and is fives time faster than traditional registration.

Now that’s a win-win!

One of the many reasons people leave behind a shopping cart full of products online is because they’re faced with a registration form that resembles a job application. People simply do not like to complete all those required fields, and certainly don’t need another set of username/password combinations to remember.

This is exactly why 86% of consumers reveal that they’d rather leave a website than complete a registration field. And, just as important, why 77% say they’d like to have social login as an option.

SoloMotoParts.com is making it really easy for people to buy at their site. SoloMotoParts.com is a motorcycle parts and gear retailer based in California that is using Janrain Engage social login to accelerate the checkout process for their customers and improve shopping cart conversion rates.

When a shopper adds a product to her cart and is ready to purchase, SoloMotoParts.com prompts the shopper to register using a social identity. Shoppers can choose to login with one of 12 identity providers, including Facebook, Twitter, Google and PayPal.

Registration with social login is typically five times faster than traditional registration, partly due to the ability to pre-populate the shopper’s social profile data on the shipment registration form. Specifically, the shopper’s first and last name, email address and location are pre-populated.

When shoppers choose to log in with their PayPal identity, SoloMotoParts.com can also pre-populate the shopper’s shipping address into the required fields.  This greatly accelerates the checkout process by eliminating the need for shoppers to enter redundant data when checking out, thereby improving the shopping experience and cart conversion rates.

SoloMotoParts.com uses X-Cart as its eCommerce platform vendor.  Janrain Engage is fully integrated with X-Cart via a turnkey plugin that supports social login and social sharing, which made implementation into the checkout flow a very simple process for SoloMotoParts.com.

Source: eMarketer

The rising popularity of social networks and online shopping represents a significant opportunity for retailers with an ecommerce presence. Looking forward at projections for ecommerce predicted at 14% growth this year, there’s no doubt that online sales will continue to increase as more consumers jump on their laptops, mobile phones and tables to make purchases.  At the same time, an increasing number of people are involved in social media with Facebook taking the lion’s share of attention with 15% of all online time spent connecting with friends and family there.

Many retailers have looked to Facebook, or F-commerce, for that opportunity.

F-commerce emerged only three years ago, offering the ability to buy and sell right within a Faceboook iframe. With the attention of almost one billion potential customers spending significant time in one place, it appeared to be a no-brainer for retailers looking to grow their business.

Fish Where the Fish Are?

However, since earlier this year Gamestop, Gap, JCPenney, Nordstrom, Banana Republic and Old Navy, among others have closed their storefronts on Facebook, leaving other retailers to wonder what the future holds for F-commerce.

One key lesson learned by these retail innovators is that people don’t appear to be interested in making purchases by shopping an online catalog at Facebook when their main intentions are to connect with friends and family on the social network. It’s like crashing a party with your product pitch when you weren’t invited.

Don’t Crash The Party

While there are certainly examples of innovative commerce happening within Facebook’s network, we’ve yet to see a model where placing your catalog in a Facebook iframe leads to success.

Now, that’s not all doom and gloom for retailers because social networks provide the perfect opportunity for discovery, referrals and the potential for content to go “viral”. As friends share the products they buy, the restaurants they love and music they’re listening to, they’re making virtual introductions between brands and their friends and thus encouraging the discovery of products, services and ideas to be considered.

Leverage Social Networks for Social Commerce…On Your Site!

Within the popularity of social networks lies an immense opportunity for retailers to leverage tools and technology to grow sales at their site. This is the future of social commerce. And it happens on your commerce site.

You’ve invested in developing a Facebook page and growing a community of fans that Like your brand, and now wonder how these activities develop into sales growth, right? Most retailers are still seeking results they can connect back to their social media efforts, and aren’t finding the bottom-line impact they hoped for.

While growing a community and engaging with Facebook fans has its benefits, the ultimate goal is to turn those fans into customers. And that happens on your site.

Register for this webinar to learn how to leverage the social networks to make your ecommerce site a thriving social shopping destination.

What you can expect to learn:

• What tools and technology the leading ecommerce brands are using to deliver a social shopping experience
• How to tap into the social networks to increase site traffic and registration conversion
• The secrets to engaging with fans on your own site to turn fans into brand advocates and customers

Tuesday, April 24 2012 at 9am PST

REGISTER today to reserve your spot.

After more than 20 years marketing technology and attending conferences, this was a first – someone who actually WANTED to talk to a vendor’s marketing guy!  But the crazy thing is that this scenario was repeated over and over during the event. Although we didn’t have a booth or our logo on banners around the event, retailers were talking about Janrain and our name came up in many conversations.

For the three-day event we scheduled 35 meetings with the top retail brands, all of whom are looking to Janrain to help them build more meaningful relationships with their customers. In fact, after hearing our story during a press interview, a reporter started recommending people for me to meet because she saw such value in our platform! That just doesn’t happen, right?

What I’ve found so exhilarating since joining the company in January is getting a sense of what is actually possible for marketers today. I’ve gone on the road to meet with a number of the 50+ global brands that value the opportunity in leveraging social profile data to engage with their audience and are doing so today with Janrain Capture. And there are hundreds of other companies calling us to help them do the same. These are exciting days at Janrain.

We’re learning that, regardless of industry, size, or any other defining characteristic, their goals are the same – to foster relationships with their customers by creating personalized, engaging, social experiences that lead to consumer loyalty and brand advocacy.  After years of hype touting the promise of getting back to 1:1 or personal marketing, marketers have the tools to bring this to life. And I’m thrilled to watch our Janrain customers using our solutions in innovative ways.

I’m back on the road today to join some of these great customers and partners we work with at SXSW.  I’m looking forward to returning with more stories and insights into the future of relationship marketing that I’ll share with you here soon.

Our eTail West Team: Sheryl, Gina, Paul and me

Technology Aids Shopping

Marian calls it “shopping under the tech influence” which really means that whether you have an ecommerce site or brick-and-mortar store, the shopping experience is heavily influenced by technology.  While we’ve seen some interesting innovations from retailers like Wet Seal, JCPenney and Macy’s, now is the time to take new technology not necessarily intended for retail and apply it to the shopping experience.

Shoppers increasingly rely on social and mobile to compare prices and check inventory, but that’s so 2011. Now retailers must go beyond the expected and really harness these technologies to drive results.

Innovative Use of Technology Gets Attention

One Janrain customer, Go Try It On, developed a mobile app that enables shoppers to snap a picture of an outfit from their mobile device and share it to their social networks for fashion advice. What if your customer could do that from her own home using an Xbox Kinect? Check out this short video that previews how we’ll go beyond today’s eCommerce site to an interactive experience where shoppers can see how clothes will fit and look on their own body, purchase items and share with friends at home through their Kinect.

Bodymetrics in the Living Room from Bodymetrics Ltd. on Vimeo.

It’s important to keep in mind that new technology isn’t just relevant to a younger generation. When social-savvy working moms need fashion inspiration they no longer have to hit the mall and deal with teenagers. They simply login at Pinterest and browse outfits that like-minded friends have already pulled together with details on where to buy the whole look. Retailers are already experimenting with Pinterest to drive traffic back to their site with Pin It buttons on product pages and campaigns like Land’s End’s “Pin It To Win It” contest that encouraged fans to create Pinboards with their favorite products.

It should be no surprise that consumers of all ages and walks are heavily influenced by their friends and family, and Pinterest is just one more social network that enables buying influence. Whether shoppers share the products they love, rate or buy at your site to their Facebook, Twitter or other feeds, the reality is that referral visits back to your site initiate from a trusted source leads to a higher likelihood of a purchase. Social sharing isn’t new technology but holds the potential to have significant impact on growing your business.

Social Must Lead to Engagement

Marian notes that our obsession with social media will intensify in 2012 but retailers must now turn their attention to engaging in meaningful ways beyond a focus on the Like button. Measuring fans, friends and followers aren’t the metrics that drive bottom line results, or engagement.

ShopWithYourFriends is leveraging technology to bring a social element to online shopping. Just last year they launched a real-time social shopping portal where fashionistas can discover new trends and shop virtually with their friends from social networks. Using badges, trophies and points can sound like fun and games, but when approached strategically, game mechanics reward people for the actions that help you reach business objectives.

Go Beyond the Shiny New Toys

To be effective and truly stand out, new technology cannot be about the novelty, or newness – we saw frequent campaigns that missed the mark when QR codes became THE next marketing tool; Facebook pages have become another broadcast media; and most mobile ads are no more interactive than a 1990 TV commercial.

Retailers have new tools in their arsenal like Facebook commerce, push notification technology, and in-store GPS, but using them right out of the box is the expected move – and will likely provide lackluster results. Take note of how innovative industries are using new technologies and improve upon it.

What Will Truly Change The Way We Shop?

Mobile, social and local are positioned to have significant impact on business this year, and retailers are in the perfect position to benefit from these tactics with the right strategy and execution. My own prediction for 2012 is that this is the year retailers will make social a critical element in their shopping experience, whether the device people use is on their lap, in their hand or on a screen in-store.

Add your own predictions in the comments section. And if you’re headed to eTail West in February, let’s connect. I’d love to hear how you’re leveraging new technology this year! Send me at email to Gina(at)Janrain.com.

Janrain Engage for Sonny

WordPress 3.3 Sonny, launched earlier this month and we have since released a new version of our Janrain Engage for WordPress plugin including our latest social login widget and some cool new features.

Highlighted new features

• Supports WordPress version 3.3
• Updated with latest Janrain Social Login Widget
• See which Social Providers people are logging in with on your site. This information is included in the Users section of your WordPress Dashboard.
• Added new WordPress shortcodes to easily personalize content that is different for visitors that are and aren’t logged into the site.

Janrain Capture for Magento Extension Released

Now it is even easier to integrate Janrain’s hosted registration into your sites built using the Magento platform. Our latest Janrain Capture for Magento Extension integrates seamlessly with the Janrain Engage plugin (social login and social sharing) we released earlier in 2011.

• Centralized and hosted user profile database
• Integrated with Janrain Engage to sign in with a variety of social identity providers
• Supports single sign-on

Please note that you need to license Janrain Capture to use this extension.