RM Exclusive: A New Way To Shop
July 1, 2013 – Social media is a constantly growing base that comes in many forms, from posting tweets to sharing videos and sharing with your friends where you are – and now, you can even share your progress on an online shopping site. Collaborative shopping takes consumers on a whole new journey now that you can involve your friends while shopping online. All of this is because of advanced technology that BevyUp has developed for online retail outlets.
Online shopping is happening all of the time and it exists alongside social networking sites. BevyUp is a new collaborative shopping platform for consumers who can now never shop alone again with capabilities that allow them to online shop with friends from different places and help each other in making the right decisions. After doing market research, BevyUp, the company became convinced that consumers and retailers all are looking for more when it comes to the online experience.
According to the co-founders of BevyUp, CEO Mauricio Cuevas (left) and CTO Brian Toba, the company has set out to help retailers be more successful. Cuevas and Toba believe BevyUp can help retailers and travel companies in the U.S. to produce a happier clientele and see growth by adding more of a collaborative aspect to online shopping. BevyUp has set itself up for success as they have begun to partner with different industries within online retail during the last year and a half, including bridal, travel, jewelry, clothing, furniture and electronics.
Retailers and customers can clearly see that companies are investing heavily in social media, recognizing the need for collaboration online. BevyUp helps bring people into its clients’ e-commerce sites instead of out of them, as currently happens with social media platforms. Many shoppers have been relying on out of band communication tools such as email, texts, phones, Skype, and social tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest to obtain the opinions of family members and friends in order to make a purchasing decision. BevyUp’s integrated platform enables them to browse and buy items online together, without having to download software on their devices.
Cuevas says the main goal for this collaborative software is to “make it feel like you’re shopping with someone instead of just online.” The idea is that BevyUp will help clients give the customer a better atmosphere to shop in while also providing an opportunity to create an emotional attachment instead of buying because of a last minute decision.
Helping retailers directly is another way BevyUp has put a positive light upon online shopping. Online marketers are learning that while sharing via social tools can build their brand, they cannot access purchase intelligence on shoppers’ sentiments and preferences that is exists on social networks. BevyUp provides online marketers with currently missing visibility into shoppers’ sentiments and buying preferences for individual products.
Cuevas explained the integrated BevyUp platform boosts shopper engagement, brand differentiation and gives retailers behind-the-scenes business intelligence, including visibility into shopper activity, product sentiment, preferences, and buying intentions. In pilot deployments, BevyUp has increased the four leading metrics for e-commerce sales by up to three times, including time on site, page views, average order value, and conversion rates. While this is a platform-based company, BevyUp wants to make sure that the site implementation process stays short and simple. The company has successfully minimized the need for a website to involve their development team in order to integrate BevyUp.
BevyUp has had to work through obstacles to make its dream a reality. For one thing, the company had to advance the technology to where they needed it to be. Having done that, the company can quickly launch what it calls its “contagious commerce” technology and turn e-commerce sites into mini social platforms in practically no time at all. In fact, BevyUp can do just that without having to change the original layout of any website, BevyUp has created a simple strip that can be included in the primary template of a client’s website, and it is designed to be simple and easy for shoppers to understand.
BevyUp has produced features that end up adding to the shopping experience while also helping their partners to understand consumer behavior. With this software, BevyUp is providing business intelligence to the retailer because it helps gain a better understanding of the retailer’s targeted customer.
This is just the beginning for BevyUp. In the next several months, BevyUp will be launching the mobile aspect to this collaborative way of shopping. Within the next few years, BevyUp intends to expand its presence and provide retailers and consumers with an enhanced online shopping experience that adds the comfort of being able to connect with friends so people can shop online together.