Yelp Enters the World of eCommerce

The popular online business review system Yelp is looking to offer an eCommerce option for small fashion retailers. To achieve this, they are partnering with the online retailer Shoptiques.com. Not only can you read and write reviews, but you can also use a “Shop Now” button to purchase items on Yelp.

So why is Yelp interested small fashion boutiques and not larger businesses? According to Yelp, small boutiques are the largest category of reviewed businesses. The idea is that when you search Yelp for a local fashion boutique, you will essentially be shopping online with them too.

Just this year alone, consumers completed 1.5 million transaction through Yelp’s platform. Right now a couple hundred retailers have their items for sale through Yelp and both Yelp and Shoptiques.com are hoping to grow this number into the thousands.

Shoptiques.com is an aggregated fashion site that sells products from thousands of boutiques worldwide. The site provides a place where you can shop online and discover the best local boutiques from around the world. Although individual stores may have their own websites, this a place to shop hand selected items, all in one place, through a seamless interface.

Many local fashion boutiques rely heavily on Yelp reviews to drive in-store sales rather than eCommerce sales. Furthermore, there’s a demand for local and independent boutiques to have a stronger eCommerce presence. So it makes sense to marry these two, and sell directly to customers online, from the very platform that they are using to research local boutiques.

RELATING TO CUSTOMER REVIEWS

For online purchases, the partnership between Yelp and Shoptiques.com really puts the importance and power of customer reviews into focus. Customer reviews can be crucial in influencing potential and new customers. To brush up on this topic and to learn how to leverage online reviews to increase sales, read our earlier blog article Psychology of Web Design.

It seems that there is a powerful emerging model in which directories and review engines will also become eCommerce stores, thus making it possible for consumers to purchase from anywhere on the internet.

What does this mean for your eCommerce site? It’s certainly still important to have a well designed website marketed through SEO and social media, however it would be wise to keep up to date with larger search engines and online aggregated sites that are looking to provide more avenues for selling products. Other examples of this model would be Google Shopping and Alibaba.com, which are eCommerce sources that do not have any inventory per se, but rather specialize in bringing you the best product or service in an online search. Overall, we can say, that this is one trend and selling avenue you won’t want to lose sight of as it develops.