Page 303 - Electronic Commerce

Chapter 6

Convey Information Receive Information Facilitate and Monitor
to Customers from Customers Communications Among Customers

Social networking Purchase advertising, Collect information from Collect a body of shared knowledge
sites post offers and and summarize customer from customer posts and use it to
promotions, post posts for analysis build customer loyalty
information about
products/services
Blogs Publish updates on Encourage customers Monitor and summarize customer
forthcoming products, to submit new ideas, discussions about products/services
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provide service purchase intentions, and and the overall brand for analysis
information on existing reservations about
products existing products/services
Microblogs Answer questions Actively solicit customer Monitor carefully customer messages
about products/services, input on current products/ and summarize for analysis to identify
respond to customer services and ideas for new trends in their perceptions and
messages with specific improvements and new thinking
answers products/services
Location-aware Post information about Encourage customers Connect geographically disparate
mobile social new retail locations, to contribute tips and customers to each other and collect
networks specific promotions at comments regarding information about differences in
particular locations specific locations customer experiences and perceptions
at different locations

Adapted from Table 1 in Chua and Banerjee (2013, p. 240), “Customer Knowledge Management Via Social Media: The Case of
Starbucks,” Journal of Knowledge Managment, 17(2), 237–249.
FIGURE 6-3 Social media strategies for business

Social Shopping Sites
The practice of bringing buyers and sellers together in a social network to facilitate retail
sales is called social shopping. One of the first of these was craigslist, an information
resource for San Francisco area residents that was created in 1995 by WELL member
Craig Newmark. That community has grown to include information for most major cities
in the United States and in several other countries. The site is operated by a not-for-profit
foundation, and all postings other than help-wanted ads are free.
The Etsy Web site provides a marketplace for people who want to sell handmade
items. The social network here includes buyers and sellers interested in crafts of all types.
The sense of community is so strong that a separate site, We Love Etsy, exists to provide a
place where Etsy buyers and sellers share information. The existence of this separate site
is an excellent example that shows how interactions among a company’s customers can be
as important (or more important) than the interactions between the company and its
customers.
Other sites that combine social media elements such as microblogging and photo
posting with shopping activities include Wanelo and Polyvore. Poshmark is a social
shopping site devoted to women’s clothing and fashion accessories. Members post photos
of items they own but want to sell and other members make offers to buy them.
Negotiating over price is done in private communications between the members but

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