Etsy gets social with new e-commerce platform

Buying and selling on Etsy.com is going to get a lot more social thanks to a new partnership between the Internet retailer and a social commerce platform called Shoppost.

Shoppost, owned by Zantler, is now officially available to Etsy users and gives sellers the ability to sell their products in-stream on such top social networks as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr.

"Many of our customers are extremely active on social media, but until now there was no compelling way to engage with and sell to them where they spend so much of their time online," said Kate Lauter, an Etsy merchant. “Shoppost gives us that capability by bringing our storefront to life across all of the major social networks with up-to-date info on color, size availability and pricing from our Etsy page."

The idea of Shppost is to facilitate a “frictionless shopping” experience by providing information including images, availability, sizing and pricing directly in promotional posts. When the customer clicks the Shoppost buy button, they will be taken directly to the merchant’s Etsy shopping cart.

In addition to Etsy integration, Shoppost is also adding a Tumblr share button. Previously, sharing on Tumblr could only be done with embed codes. The Tumblr share button functions much like Shoppost buttons on other social networks, enabling merchants to post to Tumblr with the click of a button. This could be a boon for brands looking to capitalize on Tumblr’s fashion-savvy audience.

“With Tumblr being recognized as the fastest-growing social platform concurrently with our Tumblr share button launch, this enhancement will provide our merchant base a valuable tool to expand their social reach and increase conversions,” said James Lively, president of Zanlter, the company behind Shoppost.

"Shopposts were designed to drive better engagement and conversion for merchants on social and mobile, and our early data shows we're successfully delivering on that promise. We're seeing a 22 percent engagement rate with shopposts on Facebook and 42 percent of all engagement with shopposts are happening on mobile," said Zantler CEO David Robb. "We're excited to give Etsy merchants that same ability to engage with and sell to consumers where they live on social media."

Etsy is the first online marketplace to offer Shoppost to its merchants. Just last month, Amazon made Shoppost generally available for retailers that use its Amazon Webstore e-commerce platform, and some of the Amazon merchants that have been using shopposts include merchandise licensing company for major Hollywood movie studios, Evolution, and women's fashion brand Spiegel. In addition, hundreds of Shopify and Bigcommerce retailers have listed thousands of products using shopposts since they were made available to merchants on those e-commerce platforms in June 2014, when Shoppost launched in Seattle.