This presentation is from Affiliate Summit East 2014 (August 10-12, 2014 New York City).
Session Description: A social commerce case study: find out how Slickdeals became a top 150 site in the nation with over 500 million visits to the site and mobile apps in 2013 with little paid marketing.
1. The Secrets of Slickdeals Revealed
A Social Commerce Case Study
Presented by Greg “G$” Kim
Chief Revenue Officer & General Manager, Mobile
2. Table of Contents
Goals for this Presentation
Social is the Winning Business Model
The Rise of Social Commerce
Slickdeals Overview
The Secrets of Slickdeals Revealed
The Power of Social Commerce Revealed
Q&A
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3. Goals for this Presentation
Merchant Audience
• Understand why you should utilize social commerce sites like Slickdeals and how to best leverage them
Publisher Audience
• Understand how Slickdeals works and how you might incorporate social into your business
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4. Social is the Winning Business Model
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Micro-blogging
Images / Pins
Friends
Network
Business
Network
Travel
Restaurants /
Local
Video
News /
Content
Deals /
Commerce
5. The Rise of Social Commerce
Consumer Impact
• Social commerce sites are adding a new dimension to online shopping experience by:
- crowdsourcing a broad set of products and deals for consumers to consider; and
- surfacing the best content influenced by community votes and comments on the product, brand and retailer;
and
- allowing consumers to find and interact with each other based on similar tastes and interests
Merchant Impact
• Social commerce sites allow merchants to:
- Drive significant sales (given the scale and viral effect associated with social commerce sites)
- Drive down supplier costs: With sales at scale, merchants are able to offer lower prices when they can order
larger quantities from the suppliers
- Drive incremental sales: consumers from social commerce and deal sites tend to be at the top of the purchase
funnel and may not have a product, brand and/or retailer in mind so when the merchants generate sales, it is
usually an incremental sale and/or customer.
□ Merchants can convert that consumer acquired via paid or earned media to owned media
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6. Slickdeals History
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1999 2014
Founded in Nov’99
by Van Trac
during college.
Build community forum.
Leverage the
wisdom of crowds.
Start building deeper
merchant
relationships.
Start investing in
paid advertising.
80%+ of traffic is
still direct to site.
2014/2015 Roadmap:
• Site and mobile app
redesigns to incorporate
more social, personalization
and local features
• Grow online marketing
channels and launch TV
Advertising
2004 20132010
Launch iOS and
Android mobile apps
Net Promoter
Score of 70%+
8. Secret #1: Content and Value is King
The best deal content and reviews will continue to engage users since it saves them the most
money and time and gives them confidence in their purchase.
• “I’m getting the best deal from a reputable seller”
Content and Value will trump suboptimal product design and user experience
The social aspect is the competitive advantage to aggregate and surface the best of web deal
content
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9. Secret #2: Quality and Trust is Job #1
The Community comments and votes combined with a team of deal experts and community
moderators ensure the highest quality content and experience
Merchants cannot post deals (merchants can post coupons)
Slickdeals Frontpage Commitment
Deal research and curation to Frontpage (ensure good mix of great content for all)
QA content: a team of moderators constantly check to make sure links and codes work and
expire content when needed
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10. Secret #3: Community Feedback Loops
The Slickdeals community not only posts the content and add votes and comments but they
also moderate the quality of content and member behavior
Not-so-great content is usually voted down quickly and inappropriate content and behavior is
red flagged and reviewed by Moderators
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11. Secret #4: Social is Not Easy but ROI is Powerful
For Merchants
• We all know that just having a Facebook page and posting products and coupons does not necessarily
generate significant sales
• Working with Slickdeals takes time and effort (vs. other deal/coupon sites) but the ROI is huge.
- It is not just ‘here’s our product/coupon feed’ and see you at the next conference.
- It is about collaborating and iterating daily/weekly/monthly to craft a deal and promotional package to amplify
your brand and sales
For Publishers
• It is easy to launch a social aspect to your site especially with established social media channels and
audiences being more socially-oriented…
• But it is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to build social at scale.
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12. Result #1: The Power of Social Commerce
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Card Games
$169,000 Sales
Price $25 / Sold 6,780
in 1 week
Burberry Purses
$40,000 Sales
Price $500 / Sold 800
in 3 hours
Nike Elite Socks
$74,000 Sales
Price $30 / Sold 2,450
in 3 days
Men’s Suits
$448,000 Sales
Price $112 / Sold 4,000
in 1 day
Watches
$678,000 Sales
Price $85 / Sold 7,980
in 1 promo
Quality Mattresses
$205,000 Sales
Price $805 / Sold 254
in 3 days
$10 Starbucks Card
$338,000 Sales
Price $5 / Sold 67,500
in 2 promos
Canon Cameras
$420,000 Sales
Price $2,100 / Sold 200
in 5 days
13. Result #2: David vs. Goliath
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Note: for illustrative purposes only. Metrics are sourced from public documents, market perceptions and estimates.
Claim to Fame Leading Product-Specific
Deal Site & Community
Leading Online
Coupon Site(s)
Employees 65 444
Countries / Brands 1 / 1 6 / 8
URL(s) 6+ min <2 min
Top Marketing Source Direct Navigation SEO
Time on Site 6+ min <2 min
Visits - Total 500M+ 500M+