Social Shopping Websites

a tool to help you
grow your jewelry business

© by Rena Klingenberg; all rights reserved

Definition of "social shopping" or "social commerce": A combination of online shopping and social networking. It takes place on websites where people gather to share opinions, review and recommend products, or create "pick lists" (their top choices) of products.

From the consumer's perspective, social shopping websites shorten the time involved in finding, researching and purchasing a product.

Instead of starting with a Google search and then clicking aimlessly around the web to find and compare products, they can simply go directly to the appropriate social commerce site and browse through the product lists and recommendations created by other people who have shopped for similar things or who have similar tastes.

From the jewelry artist's perspective, social shopping websites can provide powerful research and word-of-mouth-marketing opportunities for small business owners like us.

Here are a few social commerce websites of interest to jewelry artists:

• StyleHive provides "what's hot right now." It's a fashion-oriented social commerce site, where users can "tag and discover trends, products, and people."
• StyleFeeder is another fashion-focused social shopping site, where you can "show off your finds and rate everyone else's - an easier way to find the styles you like."
• ThisNext hosts "real recommendations from real people" on a variety of products in topical categories. It provides users the opportunity to track the personal shopcasts of people who share their tastes, or discover what the rest of the community recommends.
• Wists, a shortening of "wish lists", encourages users to discover and promote products from small retailers, small manufacturers, and young designers.

These are only a few of the social shopping sites currently online. There are also dozens of general ones, as well as many that serve other specific niches. And still more new ones keep popping up all the time.

You can use social commerce sites like these as a research and marketing tool for your jewelry business. Here's how:

Research

These sites can be a great opportunity to study the jewelry market, because they give you a valuable peek inside the psyche of jewelry customers. Spend time browsing around social jewelry shopping sites, seeing which products people recommend and why, and what they say about them.

These sites are a treasure trove of free information on what online jewelry shoppers want right now, which price points they find acceptable, how they search for various jewelry items, and why and how they recommend specific jewelry items to their friends.

You can also gain insight into emerging trends, styles, colors, and niches, which can spark ideas for new products, features, or services you can provide.

Or find gaps in your market that you can fill, by discovering what people want but are having a hard time finding.

Paying attention to what social jewelry shoppers say, what they value, what catches their attention, and how they search and communicate can give you an enormous advantage in serving your own jewelry market niche, both online and offline.

Marketing

Listing your own jewelry items on social shopping sites can introduce new customers to your work as well as provide more incoming links to your own website's pages and products.

Although most social commerce websites allow you to post your own products in your pick list or account, be aware that other users will be able to rate the items you list. So it's a good idea to be sure the jewelry you list is representative of your best work and has a sharp, close-up photo.

Encourage your customers to list your products or website on their favorite social shopping sites too. Many of them are likely to be very willing to do this for you, but might not think of it if you don't ask them to. Consider placing handy links to specific sites, right next to your request, to make it easier for them to recommend your products.

Also, most of these sites offer you the ability to "express your style on your blog, web site or MySpace page" by displaying your pick list RSS feed from their site on your own site or on other social networking sites.

So by creating a pick list of some of your own products, and then posting your list's RSS feed on your own blog, website, Squidoo lens, FaceBook or MySpace page, you can really help get your jewelry - and your site links - in front of a wide and diverse Internet audience, quite easily.

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