At this year’s June 11th Yahoo! Merchant Summit in Chicago, FastPivot’s President, Matthew Ledford, fixed his gaze upon an eager audience, as he has done at dozens of other ecommerce conferences, to make the case that social media & mobile shopping are the future of ecommerce.
The convergence of social with the exponential growth of smart phones reminds me of the early days when the internet expanded beyond academics. The internet brought the world to your desktop, now it brings the world to your palm!
Off-stage Ledford stayed busy directing a FastPivot sponsored Giveaway. The winner of the grand prize, a 42 inch flat screen T.V., was Janet Irwin.
After winning Irwin exclaimed:
I was SO EXCITED! As Matt was reaching into the bowl, I thought – well, too bad I never win anything, cause I don’t have a flat screen TV and I’d really love to have one. Well, He started to read my business card – QCI Direct… and my hand went shooting up! I REALLY could NOT believe it! I’d never won so much as a pack of gum before – EVER! I kinda kept pinching myself! This is really thrilling.
Irwin came representing Always-Free-Shipping.com, which specializes in selling As Seen on TV products, infomercial products and home problem solvers for over 25 years. She made it a point to attend Ledford’s talk as well as the giveaway, because while these Summits are great fun, merchants are there to network and learn.
Irwin said, “One main point that I walked away from the seminar with, is how absolutely crucial social media has already become, and we have some serious catching up to do in that regard. Two [other] related points that stick in my mind are:
1) “Social is the new search” : social & mobile will outdo desktop ordering by 2013
2) 40% spend more coming from social networks.”
Overall, this year’s Yahoo! Summit was a win for everyone!
For further reading on the Yahoo! Summit 2010 presentations, check out Robyn Tippins’ “The Yahoo! Merchant Summit: Back to the basics of online marketing.”
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