Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The main ideas for chapter 8 were social commerce and e-commerce.  E-commerce is the buying and selling of products and services via the internet.  Social Commerce uses social media to enable online shoppers to interact and communicate during their shopping experience and also to assist customers during the process.  Ratings and reviews were also a major point.  A rating is more to reflect quality and satisfaction.  Ratings and reviews help people make choices about the brand they will buy or the product.  Other peoples opinions on products is something that current or new customers want to know.  

Strengths of this chapter included social proof.  Social proof made a lot of sense to me because I see how true it is among people, especially girls.  Social proof is when a style or place becomes continuing popular and people assume that makes it the right choice.  Working in a female clothing boutique, it’s funny to see when a group of friends come in to the store to shop together.  They feed off of each others style and ideas of how clothes would look cute together.  There always seems to be a “leader” of the group that the other girls follow and listen to.  I see this mostly with high school age girls but even some college girls act this way when it comes to shopping, atleast.  Conformity was also discussed in this chapter and this plays a huge role in what I was just talking about.  Conformity is changing beliefs and actions as a reaction to group pressure.  I love to people watch, it is always entertaining because the human race is so diverse.  Social proof and conformity are so common among people, even though it shouldn’t be.  One of the weaknesses that I noticed was the psychology of social shopping.  I found it a little difficult to understand that way the book explained it.  I thought it could have been written and explained a little differently.  

I have never looked through the ads on social media.  When I’m on social media, it’s to either catch up on events or people that I’ve missed out on, or it’s to post something of my own.  I don’t ever even think to look at the ads honestly.  I don’t ever find them to really be geared toward anything I’m interested in either.  A lot of them seem like they would go to a scam site if you clicked on them.  

I prefer shopping in stores more than online.  Although shopping online seems more convenient, I like to try on clothes before buying them because I am so picky about what I wear.  I also like t touch the material and feel the garment.  I also like to know if it wrinkles easily or not because I don’t like to iron.  Almost every time i have order clothes online, I end up sending it back or giving it away to one of friends because I wasn’t satisfied with it once I got it.  I also don’t like to wait a few days, I like paying for it and taking it home that same day.  

I personally like to read reviews from other customers more than from other experts.  Customers are more honest when it comes to how they liked a product.  They know hey paid their hard earned money for something that weren’t pleased with so why not help others realize that too.  I always try to write review if I am unpleased.  

I think the evaluation of alternatives is important in social shopping.  It offers price comparisons, recommendations, reviews, testimonials, popularity filters, and referrals.  This is very helpful because not every shopper has something specific in mind.