The Official Fluid Blog

I’ve been learning the results of Olympic events via Facebook. Unintentionally. But it is happening.

I wonder how NBC feels about that? They (and everyone else) better figure something out because timezone delay is doomed.

The definition of prescient from the definitive source of everything, Wikipedia:
“Having knowledge of events before they take place; possessing or exhibiting prescience.”

While he steadfastly claims not to have had inside information, with Google naming a VP of Commerce today, kudos go out to our Chief Experience Officer, Andrew Sirotnik, for predicting this in a blog post several weeks ago.

Since Andrew’s post built an interesting case for the move, I won’t elaborate except to say it is clear the stakes are rising on ecommerce in general and, more specifically, distributed commerce, where consumers are able to interact with brands and products from wherever they spend their time. It will be interesting to see where things evolve from here.

Nice prediction, Andrew. What do you have for us next?

As Kenmore’s social media agency of record we get a fair number of trips in to Chicago. Here are seven observations from our latest:

1. Fluid’s Rachel Roy fan-only Facebook shop resonates – with fans and with clients. Andrew, our CXO, explains why it works here. A 25% increase in fans in the first 24 hours is worth talking about.

2. Lucky magazine is integrating digital into publishing and fashion in great ways. In this month’s issue: Daily Deals for their At Your Service, QR code promos and ads using ShopText (think text-to-give becomes text-to-buy or sample).

3. Social media expertise is excelling in-house. As more brands hire community engagement or social media managers we’re finding big opportunities for strong partnerships. Client understanding will lead the shake out of social media vendors and offerings. Yay.

4. It’s time to upgrade my iPhone. Why? Video. What sparked this thought? I watched a guy clean and squeegee the windows near SFO security with more gusto, style and love than can ever be imagined. It was awesome. He needs to be seen.

(more…)

Follow Andrew Sirotnik at twitter.com/asirotnik

Fluid (@Fluid) launched a fan-only pop-up store on facebook for Rachel Roy last week. The insider shopping event gave the brand’s facebook fans early access to Rachel Roy’s new jewelry line collaboration with British r&b artist Estelle.

The pop-up store was live for 5 days only delivering fans a uniquely branded shopping experience around the limited edition jewelry collaboration plus one facebook-only exclusive item which sold out within the first 12 hours (all the items sold out completely before the 5 days were up). The insider event was a marketing success as well, increasing Rachel Roy’s fan base by 25% in the first day alone.

We had a fun time designing this: great brand + great clients + thoughtful use of social media = meaningful customer experience that delivers real value, makes them want to buy and love the brand more as a result.

Here are some thoughts from the strategy & design team on why it worked…

• Differentiated brand + shopping experience. There have been some research reports circulating lately that show consumers want to be able to shop on social channels. Importantly though, consumers do not want your ecommerce site pasted into facebook. They want a layered experience that blends a differentiated brand experience with awesome content (like the shareable photo & video gallery) with a great product experience.

• Not an “e-commerce” template. Fluid’s launch for Rachel Roy is built on a productized software-as-a-service solution (Fluid Social) but consumers would never know it. The technology is designed from the ground up to be easily customized and uniquely branded (proof coming in 2 weeks when we launch another one – stay tuned . Consumers and retailers hate templates and for good reason: nobody wants to shop someone who is indistinguishable from their competition. When you look at some of the templated “facebook lookbooks” out there that deliver an identical experience for athletic footwear as they do for womens fashion, it’s an easy prediction that consumers will devalue those brands that embrace generic sameness, especially in social media.

• Authentically social. We were surprised to see so many self-described “social shopping” implementations out there that completely lacked basic social functionality. Fluid integrated standard facebook “like” and “share” functionality throughout the entire experience, delivering users the social elements they expect. It makes for a great shopping experience to see that 90 other people “liked” the Petal Ring – far more meaningful in this context than product reviews.

• Limited to fans only. It’s impossible to overestimate how much consumers value insider status and benefits. As long as you are serving up real value – and avoiding exclusivity for exclusivity’s sake – your consumers will appreciate it, share more and have a stronger urge to buy.

Josh Himwich, Director of Ecommerce Solutions at Fluid client Diapers.com, will be speaking on getting the most out of the agency/client relationship at the Internet Retailer Web Design & Usability Conference next week in Orlando, Florida. The Diapers.com team is an incredibly sophisticated group that knows their business inside and out. Certainly their results speak for themselves. We couldn’t agree more when Josh says “good design firm management begins with having specific business goals and expectations in place even during preliminary meetings.” If you are at the show we highly encourage you to attend the session, which is on Monday at 10 am.

More info on Josh’s session here.

And a related article here.