A Review of Social Commerce Trends

Art — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 20:05:00 +0000

Aggregate Markets teamed up with Webtrends to develop and publish a study that examined the effect social networking and mobile sites have on regular website traffic as well as the rise of Facebook commerce by several leading online retailers.

The White Paper Report

The report entitled, “The Effect of Social Networks and the Mobile Web on Website Traffic and the Inevitable Rise of Facebook Commerce” analyzed unique visitors to websites of Fortune 100 companies in addition to their associated Facebook fan pages. The result is an interesting industry trend.

The Comparison

By comparing brand websites with corresponding Facebook fan pages across a three to five month period, 44 organizations revealed that 40 percent had higher traffic their Facebook fan page than website. The study was then split into two categories: e-commerce and non-ecommerce which disclosed these same companies have lost approximately 25 percent of unique visitors.

The number of Facebook fans has significantly grown since the platform’s conception. There is a noticeable distinction on Facebook between businesses that are engaged in e-commerce activities and those that are not.

In general, non e-commerce brands have more Facebook traffic than website traffic when compared to e-commerce brands. Webtrends believes this is due to the common misconception that Facebook marketing is unproven for online retailers; therefore some brands do not choose to invest in this medium.

Reliability of the Facebook Platform

This begs the question: Is Facebook a reliable platform for e-commerce? Since Facebook has proven to be constantly selected over regular non-ecommerce websites, traffic continues to find fan pages. However e-commerce websites also continue to generate traffic. Therefore, as the report suggests, it is only a matter of time before Facebook catches up with traditional websites.

Therefore, to answer the previous question, yes it currently is a reliable platform for e-commerce. However, due to the stigma from marketers of the reliability, traffic is not quite booming. As Facebook continues to expand, online retail professionals will witness the value of the platform thus beginning e-commerce at fan pages.

This report does not completely prove that Facebook will become the king of e-commerce. Instead, the report provides evidence that Facebook is here to stay and businesses cannot ignore its power. Given the industry, Facebook can be a significant advertising mechanism. For those that understand there is an entire world outside of a single website, Facebook e-commerce is a significant step.

Enter the World of Mobile Domains

Art — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:30:43 +0000

It seems as if the bar is being raised on technology every year. Advancements are coming so fast that even the most sophisticated gadgets aren’t as surprising as they should be. Some of the more notable technological upgrades relate to wireless technology and cellular phones. The average phone these days is anything but, coming with the ability to play music, surf the web, pull up directions and more. Even with everything technology has thrown our way, most would probably agree that they didn’t see mobile domain names coming.

What are Mobile Domains?

The mobile domain is a fairly new concept on the domain name market. As wireless technology becomes more tightly integrated with the internet, webmasters are increasingly trying to target a new audience – mobile web surfers. If you are looking for innovative ways to increase your visibility, you may want to consider a domain name strategy centered around the fast growing traffic surfing the mobile web.

In 2004, a case was made for adopting DotMobi as a new Top Level Domain. In 2006 .mobi became a reality, now standing alongside TLDs like .com and .net. The major difference is that this extension is exclusive to delivering the internet to mobile devices. This is not to say that .coms and other popular extensions can’t be viewed over a mobile device. The advancements in web technology essentially means that any website can be developed for mobile browsing.

Interoperability and Usability Problems

While any given domain can be optimized to provide the internet experience via a PC or mobile phone, integrating the technologies isn’t as easy one may think. Despite all the advancements, most mobile devices do not support key web elements such as Javascript or cookies. And because 3G is still only present in a small number of devices, the mobile internet as a whole lacks the speed needed to surf the web effectively. For this reason, the development of mobile websites must be handled on a separate scale for now.

The Bright Side

The issues of incompatibility does not mean that the technologies will never work in perfect harmony. For now, you may want to consider leaving your existing website as is and then optimizing another for mobile internet traffic, giving yourself the opportunity to embrace audiences on two separate webs. Now is probably the best time since using the mobile internet to increase visibility is a new strategy altogether.

One should keep in mind that mobile domains and the mobile internet are both such new concepts that they will require some fine tuning in order to catch up to the much more mature internet. So, even though mobile technology has come a long way, there is still a while to go before we truly enjoy a seamless browsing experience like we do on a PC.

Mobile domains represent an exciting period for the internet world. Technology has taken us so far yet we have barely even scratched the surface. When it comes to mobile web surfing, the possibilities are endless.

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A Review of Social Commerce Trends

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Enter the World of Mobile Domains

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