With the rapid advent of technology, today‘s businesses find themselves dealing with a growing number of channels through which they can reach their customers: the shopper‘s purchase journey has certainly changed beyond all recognition in recent years.
A new report from social commerce solutions provider Reevoo, dubbed The New Social Purchase Journey, details how the advancement of online shopping, as well as the recent arrival of mobile, tablet and social media as platforms on which to sell, has provided major new challenges to business.
In order to address the key issues surrounding the new technology-driven shopping experience, Reevoo recently gathered together a host of senior figures from the retail, travel, banking and technology industries, and from the debate it was clear that both obstacles and opportunities exist from this new exciting commercial climate.
Having gained exclusive access to the event in London, Retail Gazette learned that a host of new tools and innovative features planned for Facebook are set to make the social networking site an even more influential commercial platform in the near future.
As well as a ‘like‘ button, websites will soon contain a Facebook ‘want‘ button, which is arguably set to become a hugely influential facet of businesses‘ marketing strategies.
Meanwhile, the most influential users of Facebook could effectively become brand ambassadors for certain companies, while the opportunities for group buying and a greater level of personalised selling are emerging at a rapid rate.
Businesses‘ fear of social media, and their concerns about measuring return on investment, will soon be eased by new analytic tools yet to hit the market, and the increased roll-out of mobile and tablet technology will further diversify the shopping process.
As Reevoo CEO Richard Anson said, so much has changed in terms of the shoppers‘ purchase journey in the last decade, but the potential for technological and mobile development in the next few years is “mind-blowing”.
To read the full and in-depth report of the proceedings, please click on the file below. You must be a registered Retail Gazette reader to download this document.
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Delegates at the discussion, which was hosted by Anson, included Facebook‘s Head of Commerce Partnerships, Gavin Sathianathan, Dixons Retail‘s E-commerce Director, Jeremy Fennell, and Head of Personalisation at Barclays, Giles Richardson.
