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Case 7.1: EC Application: Polyvore: A Trendsetter in Social Shopping 215

Concerns About Social Reviews Works” at computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/social-
and Recommendations networking/networks/yelp.htm. For further information,
see yelp.com/faq and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp.
Some people raise the issue of how accurate the reported
reviews and recommendations are. Fake reviews and claims Note that some shopping aids can be used for both online
are suspected to be 30–40% of the total reviews in some and off-line shopping. One such aid is the touch-screen PC
sites. For example, see the “allegations against business available at kiosks in physical stores (e.g., Kohl’s), where
owners” at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelp. There is also a con- you can examine catalogs and place your order to be shipped
cern about businesses paying money to review sites to to your home, while you are in the store.
manipulate the reviews. Another concern is that in cases of
small number of reviewers a bias (positive or negative) may Collaborative Reviews
be shown. For a discussion, see Barnett (2015).
Sites such as ProductWiki (productwiki.com) are struc-
tured like a wiki; thus, every user can contribute to the site.
Other Shopping Aids and Services The goal is to create a comprehensive resource collection.
The companies believe that a need exists for unbiased,
In addition to recommendations and marketplaces, there are accurate, and community-based resources for product
several sites that provide social shopping aids, as illustrated information. These sites use collaborative reviews, a col-
in the following examples. lection of pros and cons about a product submitted by and
voted on by the consumers. The result is a comprehensive
Yelp: The Shoppers’ Best Helper review that takes the opinions of many people into account
and highlights the most important aspects of a product. A
Yelp (yelp.com) is company that operates a local guide for collaborative review is made up of two things—short state-
helping people find in a specific city services ranging from ments and votes. Community members submit and vote on
mechanics to restaurants based on reviews and recommenda- specific statements that are separated by pros and cons,
tions of users. In this way, it connects people with great local making it easy to see what is good and bad about each
businesses. Community members, known as “Yelpers,” write product.
reviews of the businesses and then rate them. Yelpers also
find events and special offers and can “talk” with each other Dealing with Complaints
(e.g., see yelp.com/talk).
The site is also a place for businesses to advertise their As seen earlier, customers have learned how to use social
products and services (paying fees to Yelp for posting a “Yelp media to air their complaints. For a UK survey that shows that
Deal”). Yelp is also accessible via mobile devices. The site customers are more likely to complain via social media, see
offers several social networking features such as discussion xlgroup.com/press/new-survey-finds-customers-
forums, photo posting, and creation of groups and have fol- increasingly- likely-to-use-social-media-to-complain. See
lowers. Yelp has a company blog (yelpblog.com), along with a also wptv.com/dpp/news/science_tech/facebook-fb-twitter-
community blog for Elite Yelpers worldwide (yelpblog.com/ twtr-used-to-complain-get-answers.
section/yelp-community). Yelpers who frequently become
actively involved and engage on the site can apply to become
an “Elite Squad” member (see yelp.com/elite). Social Marketplaces and Direct Sales

How Yelp Works The term social marketplace refers to a marketplace that
Users look for a business in a specific location. Yelp’s search uses social media tools and platforms and acts as an online
engine finds available businesses and presents them with rat- intermediary between buyers and sellers. Ideally, a social
ings and reviews as well as with accessibility and directions. marketplace should enable the marketing of members’ own
Yelp connects with Google Maps to show the business creations as Polyvore does.
location and further aids in discovering related businesses. Some examples of social marketplaces include:
Adding social features to user reviews creates a reputation
system, whereby site visitors can see the good and the bad. • Craigslist. Craigslist (craigslist.org) can be considered a
For the topic of reputation management, see seofriendly. social network marketplace in that it provides online clas-
com/search-engine-marketing-and-reputation - sified ads in addition to supporting social activities (meet-
management. For more on Yelp’s operation, see “How Yelp ings, dating, events).