Yesterday our CEO John Jackson had a briefing with Charlene Li, founder of The Altimeter Group, an influential, “research-based advisory firm that helps companies and industries leverage disruption to their advantage.” She provided some very encouraging words and helpful feedback throughout the briefing and also tweeted about the discussion. In advance of the Altimeter Group’s upcoming “Rise of Social Commerce” conference in October, Charlene’s colleague, Christine Tran, wrote this great blog post today mentioning our ShopTogether technology as one of the “7 Social Experiences in E-Commerce,” and the work we do with Mattel and Charlotte Russe (among others).
As part of the “Recommendations, Reviews, and Ratings” category that Christine includes in the No. 1 spot, we would also add our ShopTogether Crowd application as an example of a real-time recommendations engine. ShopTogether Crowd displays the most popular items on a retailer’s site in a dynamic display, with products moving in and out as the crowd’s favorites change in real time. ShopTogether Crowd lets customers see what’s popular with other people who shop when they do.
For example, if you think about online shopping in terms of a real-world shopping mall, visitor demographics tend to change during different times of the day, i.e., there may be older customers coming to the store in the morning, office workers visiting during their lunch breaks, and students stopping by in the afternoon when classes are over. As the likes of those different demographics change during the day, ShopTogether Crowd reflects those changes in real-time, giving like-minded visitors new ideas for what to buy and marketers a new look at their customer base. Here is an example of how this application works via our customer Charlotte Russe’s Facebook fan page.
It looks like the Altimeter Group has a great show lined up for October and it will be interesting to see what other innovations for online retailers they discuss.
Tags: altimeter group, charlene li, christine tran, e-commerce, e-tail, real-time, s-commerce, ShopTogether, social media, social shopping