SOCIAL MEDIA INTERFACE DESIGN AND ONLINE SHOPPING

This Sunday I decided I would spend most of the day catching up on my online feeds and read a New York Times. In between blog posts and the NYT style magazine (I'm not a fashionista, I'm more of a voyeour).I checked in on some of my favorite online clothing sites-like Urban Outfitter. I found a bow strap top that is similiar to the style I recently saw in this month's Vogue. As I was about to add it to my cart, I noticed that there is now an option to add what I purchase from UO as a feed on the profiles off all the major social media networks and delicious. I don't find this surprising, and it's probably been around for a while with interface design nowadays. The idea of a feed posting all of one's shopping endeavors is a two-fold marketing gift to online shopping.

One-everyone feels like a trend setter/celebrity when all of their myspace/facebook/social media friends see what they are buying online.

Two-brands/online services get an awareness boost in consumer referrals when all of those sm friends see what you have been buying online and it tweaks their consumer desires and needs.

Amazon has already been doing this with product recommendations showing what people are buying in addition to the same music, books. kitchen utensils, etc you just bought. The use of social media network feeds is the evolutionary next step.

I don't know if this is a completely positive move by allowing retailers to harvest consumer data about their products and their competitors products. In addition several marketing firms will be planning the next big campaign for new product launches based on this data. My hope is that it gets people further away from the celebrity endorsements of commercials and allows people to purchase products that have improved someone's quality of life or just made it easier for someone like myself to find the right article of clothing to complete an outfit.

There are several blogs out there right now that are feasting on the free products that are coming their way from retail brands just so these bloggers can give the product a thumbs up or thumbs down (the idea is that the hand picked bloggers will give it a thumbs up). Then all of their subscribers can view their product reviews before deciding to make a purchase.

If the freebies are taken away, I predict the next level of these blogger tastemakers are going to have the field leveled by everyday purchases feeding into the profiles of sm users. The market for consumer goods/services referral is going to get even more saturated than it already is.

So much is in the air right now with consumer goods and marketing. I'm going to grab the proverbial bowl of popcorn and see how this all plots out.