Partner Article

The value of an online conversation

Kevin Flood, CEO of Shopow, the shopping search engine shares his views on the importance of online conversation in e-commerce.

A growing number of people are becoming more internet savvy on a day-by-day basis. As some 77% of UK households have internet access, online shopping has seen an inordinate increase in its popularity. Its estimated that people spent 13.5bn on shopping online this year alone. With the dawn of a new age of conversation, retailers are able to promote and develop their business on a global scale and connect with a much broader audience.

Sites such as Shopow.co.uk are creating virtual high streets and form a centralised hub for users to browse through millions of products. In this day and age, when most people find it difficult to juggle a work life balance, online shopping platforms such as Shopow are an ideal final destination for people with hectic lifestyles.

This demand for online shopping looks as if it will continuously increase, especially in the run up to Christmas. With 2011 being a tough year for households across the nation, users are able to get the most out of shopping online by comparing prices of goods online. Shopping platforms make it far easier for users to find the best bargains and also recommend the best deals to their contemporaries.

The online shopping phenomenon is shifting more towards a conversational, blogger-led direction. Sales are driven more through sites which are gathering followers, who trust the judgment of their peers and buy recommended products. This new style of shopping gives power back to the consumers by generating conversation between users. Platforms likeShopow are the perfect environment in which users can voice their recommendations, take advice from others as well as actually purchasing the item directly.

With the whole dynamic of online shopping evolving; the rise of mobile shopping ensures that people can now shop for goods. It seems that now as a third of adults use smartphones in the UK, its inevitable for the world of online retailing to collide with the offline world. People have the ability to find the cheapest pricesat their fingertips, from household goods to food and drink.

New development in online retail conversation points its attention towards QR codes, which are similar to bar codes but serve a different purpose. They can be scanned using apps on smartphones and will direct users towards online vouchers. They have become popular in recent times due to the reasonably fast readability and the wide spread use of the smart phones. Recently retailers have started to understand the value of connecting with the masses using QR codes for promotions and deals.

Although voucher code sites have rocketed in popularity recently but it is no longer enough to secure your business by rolling out a substantial number of vouchers. People are increasingly taking recommendations from friends; be that blogs, social media networks and in person the value of a good conversation will be increasingly measured in pounds and pence.

Shopping trends seem to have moved online. Its target audience has moved away from just housewives with too much time on their hands to a much wider user base. Online shopping has become more accessible and is ingrained in the psyche of a whole new generation of people.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .