The Rise of Social Commerce event is now SOLD OUT.  The phone has been ringing off the hook to accept new registrations, but unfortunately, we cannot. My heart says yes, but the fire codes say that we are FULL. <SORRY>

Lot’s of interest.  Attention is sky rocketing.   This is consistent with the research that we have done for the Report on Rise of Social Commerce.  While only 20% of 53 companies interviewed stated that they used the term social commerce and had a strategy in place for 2010, over 86% say that they will have a strategy to implement a Social Commerce Strategy for 2011.  The good news for technology providers is that it is NET new funding by the line of business leaders.

Want to understand more?  Just because you will not be at the event does not mean that you will have to miss it.  We will be broadcasting the event live through USTREAM.  (check it out at http://www.ustream.tv/rsc10.)  As you watch the feed, you can communicate with us live during the event.  The Twitter streams (will be aggregated) and discussed on stage.  Just use the Hashtag #RSC10.  We will also be taking questions through the twitter stream. There will also be 10 active bloggers at the site.  Look for those posts and check-out what you missed by watching the archived stream.

At the event, we will also be showing and archiving video of REAL people doing REAL things with social technologies.  These videos are aggregated from participants in the EXPOTV community< like this one from EXPO member Kelly L from Ohio speaking about mobile applications that she would like to see….>.  Seeing real folks talking about social really brings the concepts home for me.  And, I hope for you also.

If you are attending live, the weather in California is beautiful. If you are attending virtually, enjoy!  It is going to be a great event.

The great recession set the stage for new buying behaviors.  Shoppers want to connect; and when they buy, they want to do so with greater certainty.  A more conservative buyer is shopping. They have a growing distrust of advertising and branded social sites; and a greater need to connect them with ”friends like me!” As a result, the federation and unification of review data across multiple websites is a foundational element to the Rise of Social Commerce.

This federated content combined with the use of expert insight –doctors, lawyers, sports enthusiasts– has two primary drivers:

• Let’s connect quicker! Reviews are no longer JUST about text. Based on data collected by PowerReviews from over 12 million reviews over the past two years, video is growing in popularity.  While images have doubled,  video reviews have grown 10X.  Why have video reviews grown 5X faster?  The answer is simple.  People want to connect quickly with people like them.  They want to do it quickly.  Pictures and videos allow an instant psychographic connection. It answers the question, “Is this a person like me?”

• It is not about you! It is not about the brand. It is about the collective wisdom of the community: share insight from people that the buyer trusts.  This is a marked change for a product-centric company that has built a living on push-based advertising about their brands.  For now, tt is not about your website your fan page or your sponsored-communities.  The shopper is a skeptic.  They are the most likely to buy based on posts on third-party websites.  In our research, the most informed buyers are turning to Amazon, Best Buy, EBAY, Staples, and Wal-Mart. Shoppers most frequently look at the most positive and the most negative reviews.  When the data is abstracted for easy access it drives buying behavior. Look at the case study in figure 1.

In this case study, the Pros and Cons are easily displayed and there is tabbed navigation to enable a user to quickly find reviews from people like them. In the interviews for the Rise of Social Commerce, one company is actively listening to review feedback on over 800 sites.  The use of syndicated reviews can be a powerful contributor to ROI. For one consumer electronics company, the syndication of review information across three retailer websites increased revenue 28%.  How is that for a return on social?!!

If you don’t believe that the use of reviews is a powerful driver of customer buying decisions,  get it straight from the mouths of the customer’s themselves. Check out these videos supplied courtesy of our friends at EXPOTV.

Gaming is the third most used tactic by companies in the scramble to drive differentation in the Rise of Social Commerce,  As companies cross the chasm of being social for social’s sake to defining and driving Frictionless Commerce, gaming grows in importance. At the upcoming Altimeter Group conference, Rise of Social Commerce in Palo Alto, October 6th and 7th, Plimus and Zygna will be sharing their perspectives. 

 In preparation for the event, we share a guest post from Simon Jones, VP of Plimus:

The countdown to the first annual Rise of Social Commerce conference is under way. I’m delighted to be part of this inaugural Altimeter Group event and will be speaking on Thursday, Oct. 7, as part of the conference session “The Games Social People Play.”

The social Web, and marketing games within it, has become vital business play for game developers looking to expand their reach, their fan base and their tax bracket. With the ongoing explosion of social networking and online gaming, we at Plimus are quite confident this phenomenon won’t be going away anytime soon. However, the market is getting increasingly crowded, and the “build it and they will come” approach that blossomed in the last couple of years has clearly reached its zenith. As a result, game developers must strive to create the perfect online environment in order to thrive. 

During my session, I’ll be talking about ‘Turning on the TAP.’ This is all about understanding that success is represented by the three-legged stool of Technology, Audience and Process.  I’ll share three customer case studies outlining key elements involved in driving online engagement, and reveal some of the key lessons we have learned along the way to help guide companies looking to enter the market.

While I don’t want to give too much away, perhaps a sneak peek will pique your interest.

At Plimus, we are working to solve the needs of clients who are looking to optimize their investments in e-Commerce 3.0, the newly-developing way in which online customers want to buy anytime, anyplace, anywhere, with as little hassle as possible. Call it a desire for ‘frictionless e-Commerce.’  Simultaneously, many game consumers have shifted their attention toward the social Web to supply them with their next distraction-of-choice. The combination of factors means that simply looking at one element of the mix won’t get the job done: you may have awesome technology, but if you don’t know your audience’s preferences, you’re toast, and vice versa.

Fortunately, we all have the necessary ingredients in our business; all we need is the recipe, and the commitment to combine the ingredients the right way.  Based on the results we’re seeing from some of our lead clients, I can tell you that the baked goods that come out the other end can be very tasty indeed.

 “Tell me more, Simon,” you say? Join me at the conference on, Oct. 7 at the Palo Alto Four Seasons.  I hope to see you there!

- Simon Jones, VP of Strategic Solutions, Plimus