As all eyes focus on the social commerce landscape for 2012, Dimensions Mall, has dropped a veritable bomb less than a month into the year.
While 67% of retailers are already planning to use Facebook to drive traffic through to e-commerce in 2012, not to mention Coca-Cola, Disney and Starbucks, the three largest brands on the social networking site, already selling products directly, Georgia-based Dimensions Mall has gone one step further.
As reported by Social Media Influence, the company is developing a virtual shopping mall, where consumers create their own custom avatars to take them around realistic-looking stores, try on outfits in virtual dressing rooms and share the experience in real-time with family and friends.
The mall is packed with social functionality, such as profile pages, where shoppers can share and review purchases, as well as regularly updated products, offering shoppers access to items that are ‘trending’ at that moment in time.
It’s certainly a radical step forward into social commerce – and one intended to revolutionise the communal shopping experience. Will it work?
– Yes, because it appeals to our cautiousness. Shoppers can watch each other’s actions and see what others have purchased, before making their own moves
– Yes because it appeals to our curiosity. Shoppers can explore one another’s social pages for reviews and recommendations, seeking out authoritative views before committing to purchases
– Yes, because, quite simply, we are influenced by the people we like. By making the social shopping experience truly communal and facilitating real-time shared shopping experiences, we are more likely to follow our peer’s actions into purchase decisions
All in all, it looks like a groundbreaking project and it will certainly be interesting to see which brands dip their toes into the water first.
