Your Facebook “Likes” Matter !

Did you know that you can help and give your fashion opinion to someone from the comfort of your own home? Well, your Facebook “likes” matter with Brazilian retailers’ C&A Fashion. I came across an interesting concept where the underlying goal was to help minimize and ease shopping. As most of us know, and myself, we experience and desire for social acceptance. We are interested in what others have to say, and often look towards them for a pre- and post-purchases. How many times have you based your purchasing decision on what someone said about the item?

What C&A Fashion created was an integration of social media into a daily lifestyle of shopping. Online connects with offline. Check out the video for yourself:

 How it works? 

1. Each piece of clothing is hung on a hanger, which has a counter on it. The counter number is based on the number of people that have “liked” the piece online.
2. Online, users can give their opinions on all the pieces and “like” it. The “like” is real-time, which means that the addition is immediately added to the total number of “likes” and updated on its hanger.

The Purpose?

Well, to help minimize that need for a second opinion on whether to buy the jacket or not. Viewing a decent amount of “likes” can support and convince shoppers to purchase the product. If 1,000 users online have seen it and liked it, wearing it out on the street will be just as eye-catching. The question is:

Are we all socially conscious? Does the opinion of other people matter when it comes to our physical appearance?

To most, I believe it does. On social media websites, such as Facebook, you have multiple posts of users asking for preferences on which electronics to buy, what dress to wear for prom, etc. Overall, users want to wear not only what they feel is aesthetically pleasing, but also, what will be social accepted by others. In Paul Adam’s book, Grouped, he explains and mentions we talk to help others. People share because they have do so to help others and expect no reciprocity in return. Although we do have a small group of people that we trust most and are the key influences of our decisions, the use of a hanger “count” can assist our consumer decision making process when those influential few aren’t around.

We talked before in class how communities breed conversations. The concept of Facebook “likes” can increase purchases by giving that additional “push”. Approximately, 78 percent of consumers will trust peer recommendations, even if that means accepting the information from completely unknown consumers. With the comparison that consumers only trust 14 percent of advertisements. Listening into an online conversation can be extremely beneficial, and there are advantages in doing so:

1. Understand what your users like: The clothes, colours, styles, etc. are all qualities that one can use as useful information to possibly generate sales in the future.
2. Use the Facebook Wisdom App for collective intelligence: Extract the data from those that comment and “like” the items of clothing from the collection and use it to better understand your consumer market. Their demographics, personal interests, etc. are all useful information to help leverage your marketing and direct it more effectively towards your target market.