Ecommerce has gotten friendly with the rise of Pinterest, Facebook Gifts, and more ways to sell to peers. So today Inside Network launched a new site called Inside Social Commerce to complement its blogs Inside Facebook, Inside Social Games, and Inside Mobile Apps.
Led by Damon Brown, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Facebook Marketing, ISC will cover commerce startups and giants alike.
Inside Network’s editor AJ Glasser tells me there’s a big gap for the site to fill. “Ad publications like AdAge are looking at marketing apps, TechCrunch and VentureBeat are looking at third-party commerce startups, but I can’t think of a blog taking a step back and looking at apps that drive users to take a certain activity that will lead to a purchase.”
But what exactly will Inside Social Commerce cover? There’ll be analysis of trends in what ecommerce tools offer, monetization tactics, and deep-dives into apps. Glasser says “you don’t see anyone reviewing Amazon’s Price Check app vs Craigslist mobile vs Target’s new app.”
Glasser went on to say the blog aims to answer questions like “are the food snobs who buy into bulk wine clubs or people who buy from One Kings Lane more likely to buy on mobile or the web? Where can social commerce engage that user, and is it the same as the person who shops at Walmart?”
Inside Network was acquired by WebMediaBrands in May 2011 for $14 million, and has been mulling ideas for a new site for awhile. It became clear to the team (where I used to be the lead writer of Inside Facebook) that ISC needed to be its next property when Glasser said it realized that, “after you factor out games, commerce is the next biggest app category.”
Inside Social Commerce will start with one to two posts a day ramping up to around three a day, ranging from spot news to the deep, wonky coverage Inside Network is renowned for. Articles will come from Brown as well as social scientist contributor Peggy Albright and the rest of the IN team.
ISC will be pulling in dollars from advertising sponsorships and sales of research reports under the Inside Network Research brand that produces the popular Inside Virtual Goods pdf. Its tools AppData and PageData will help Inside Network share what’s working, what’s not, and what ecommerce companies need to do to keep shopping carts full.
For a taste of what Inside Social Commerce will have on the shelves, check out its breakdown of retail platform ShopIgniter and interview with the promising startup’s CEO. TechCrunch has its own ecommerce channel that all our writers contribute to, but we’re looking forward to learning from the Inside Social Commerce squad who will live and breathe the industry. See you in the press, ISC.
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