I’ve kept Pinterest as a strategy on its own because that’s exactly what it is:
it’s in a league of its own.
According to an infographic published by Shopify, the average order value of
an order from Facebook is half that of an order from Pinterest. It’s also the
third most popular social network in the world, devoted exclusively to
sharing images that people “pin” to their “boards” from all over the web.
If you have really visual products, like clothes, Pinterest is an amazing way to
show your stuff off. Just make sure to have a Pin It button on your website’s
pages, and people can instantly share whatever they like with whoever they
like.
Pinterest doesn’t stop at waiting for people to pin your products. You can
also maintain bulletin boards of your own that you pin anything and
everything to(remember RELEVANCE), and people can follow your boards,
share your pins, and favorite them.
Many big brands are running hugely successful contests and campaigns using
just Pinterest.
Quick Tip: Pinterest is very commercially driven - you can even include
30
prices with the image. Pins with prices have been shown to get more
engagement than pins without prices. Win!
Resources:
An excellent post on Crazy Egg about utilizing Pinterest for eCommerce
Existing legislation imposes
constraints on certain aspects in MEC. For example, in some countries privacy
protection doesn't allow the users' location to be given to service providers.
On the other hand, the peculiarities of MEC (e.g. the fact that the user can
close a contract very easily and in any country) require certain legislation to
be defined in order to support e-commerce (e.g. out-of-court dispute
settlements or electronic cancellation of contracts). And, of course, user's
needs influence the development of MEC applications and services. At the same
time, the offered applications and services have an impact on users' needs,
e.g. since the user enjoys the benefits of location-based services and can, for
instance request guiding instructions to reach a place, s/he will also demand
to have location-based services in his/her
language when s/he is abroad that can be accessed in a familiar way.
3.2
Distinctive Features of MEC Applications and Services
MEC applications take advantage
of mobile communications to offer to consumers and businesses additional
benefits as opposed to traditional e-commerce applications.
Location-awareness. In mobile computing, knowledge of the physical
location of a user at any particular moment is central to offering relevant
services. The location of a mobile device is available to the mobile network
operator but it can also be found using sensor devices or technologies such as
the Global Positioning System (GPS). GPS uses a number of satellite stations to
calculate with great accuracy the location of devices equipped with GPS
receivers. There are many examples of location based electronic commerce
applications including: geographically targeted advertising (everyone near a
fast-food restaurant gets free (electronic) coupons for the new burger),
fleet management, vehicle tracking for
security, traffic control, telemetry, emergency services, etc.
Adaptivity: Mobile e-commerce applications should be adapted to the
environment of their clients. Adaptability is possible along various dimensions
including the type of the device in use, the currently available communication
bandwidth as well as location and time.
Ubiquity: Mobile communications enhance
electronic commerce by making electronic commerce services and applications
available anywhere and at anytime.
Through hand-held devices such as mobile phones, users can be reached at
anytime, independent of their location. Mobile computing makes possible that users are immediately
notified about particular events. It also enables the delivery of
time-sensitive information whose value depends on its timely use.
Personalization: The information, services and applications
available in the Internet today are enormous. It is thus important that the
user receives information that is of relevance. Furthermore, customization is a
key issue in using mobile devices because of the limitations of the user
interface in terms of size, resolution and surfability. Studies (Durlacher Research, 2000) show that
every additional click reduces the transaction probability by 50%. Thus, MEC
applications must be personalized enough to represent information in compact
and attractive forms and to optimize the interaction path, enabling the user to
reach the desired services with as few
clicks as possible.
Broadcasting. Some wireless
infrastructures, such as cellular architectures and satellite networks, support
broadcasting (i.e., the simultaneous delivery) of data to all mobile users
inside a specific geographical region. Broadcasting offers an efficient means
to disseminate information to a large consumer population. This mode of
operation can be used to deliver information of common interest to many users
such as stock prices, weather information or for advertising.
