How Social Commerce Really Works & Why

GroupOn might be darlings of the web right now, but as the launch of Facebook Deals shows, the game is far from over and we have just now taken first steps towards what is real (online) social commerce. I had briefly touched upon what the future of social commerce looks like in my April 19 edition of my e-newsletter, Om Says, So What Comes After Social Commerce.

The crux of my argument was that if the first phase of e-commerce was the utilitarian hunt for staples, the next phase of e-commerce is about recreational shopping where the merger of social and interest graphs would drive buying decisions.

Paul Adams, the Google engineer who put together a very popular presentation, The Real Life Social Network, is now working for Facebook as a product manager. He recently uploaded his latest presentation, How Your Customers’ Social Circles Influence What They Buy, What They Do and Where They Go to SlideShare. It articulates some of my thoughts and digs deeper into the future of social commerce. On this weekend, sit back and enjoy the whole thing. Yes, it is a long presentation, but it is well worth the effort and time. And you can follow him on twitter on twitter @padday.

PS: Hey Paul, if you want to compare notes, just direct message me 🙂

Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):

  • The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
  • NewNet Q1: Content Farms and Niche Networks on the Rise
  • Defining Hadoop: the Players, Technologies and Challenges of 2011


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