Well, I checked it out and I’m not convinced. Levi’s just seems the wrong product for effective social shopping; even if my facebook friend or friends do like a certain pair of jeans, how does that help me to buy -online – jeans that are right for me?
Isn’t it just a basic form of product reviews, but without a scale of “liking” and without any useful and insightful comments?
For me, the value of “social shopping” is to a) recreate in the online world the event of going to the high street with friends or b) to spread the word about special and exclusive offers. Levi’s offering doesn’t do either of these. The recreation of real-world high street shopping is much more likely to work with products/ clothes which are more distinctive than mostly blue jeans. The social, viral spreading of special offers becomes effective once it’s beyond the control of the retailer, for example retweeting of offers, or on sites like hotukdeals (as I wrote about here).
I do however like how Levi’s integrate their facebook content into the right hand side of the page; much more engaging than the ubiquitous “Join us on facebook” link on most retailers’ sites. And a rather impressive 287,712 fans.
One thought on “Buying jeans because your friends “like” them?”
Hi Helen, I came across this blog purely by coincidence.
I totally agree with your observations about an effective social shopping experience. In addition to the two valid points you make I would add a third — social shopping should provide “easily accessible variety”. There are a few ways I belive this can be done. We will test out all these theories in a few months time. In the meantime enjoy the “high street highway”:)