Sociable Labs Launches On-Site Social Commerce Solution to Help Online Retailers Move Beyond Engagement to Revenues

SAN MATEO, Calif., Oct. 26, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Sociable Labs™, a leading provider of on-site social commerce solutions, today emerged from stealth to announce the general availability of its ROI-Guided Social Design™ solution to help online retailers dramatically increase referral traffic and sales using social graph technology. Concurrently, Sociable Labs also announced that it closed $7 million in Series B financing led by Battery Ventures. Founded by social marketing experts and seed funded by Facebook through the fbFund, Sociable Labs is built on deep expertise in the emerging field of social design and the intricacies of the Facebook platform.

Active.com®, a media property of The Active Network (NYSE: ACTV) and the leading online community that connects people with the sports and activities they love to do, has leveraged Sociable's RSVP and Purchase Share applications to create powerful social integrations that drive event awareness and participation. "Sociable Labs has been a strong complement and accelerator of our existing social media strategy, harnessing the reach of our Active.com consumer audience and enabling users to share their event plans and fitness goals more easily with their social networks," said Kristin Carroll, Vice President of Marketing at Active Network. "Sociable Labs' technology is driving referral traffic to Active.com that converts at a 300 percent higher rate than Facebook Fan Page traffic."

According to a recent Forrester study, 62 percent of retailers reported that ROI from social marketing is unclear(1).  Unlike other social media solutions that focus on "soft" results like acquiring Facebook fans, increasing customer engagement or monitoring consumer conversations, Sociable Labs focuses on traditional ecommerce metrics, such as traffic, conversion rates and sales – "hard" ROI.  Sociable believes retailers looking for social ROI should focus on ways to connect consumers with product information from their most trusted source, their friends.  Sociable Labs' suite of hosted applications does just that, offering consumers an easy way to share opinions and discover products based on their friends' advice, right at the point of purchase.  This type of repeatable, word-of-mouth marketing is a key requirement for social commerce success, and one that the Sociable Labs solution was built from the ground up to support.

At the heart of Sociable Labs' success is its test-and-learn approach that allows ecommerce professionals to rapidly deploy, test and optimize the design of its social applications on their websites to continuously improve ROI. This approach has proven to be very effective, with Sociable Labs' customers reporting increased social sharing on-site by up to 20 times compared to standard social buttons (e.g. "likes" or "shares"). This increase in sharing has driven traffic back to their sites that converts up to 300 percent higher than Facebook fan page traffic.

"Sociable Labs is laser-focused on motivating consumers to share their shopping experiences right from the ecommerce site," said Nisan Gabbay, founder and CEO. "Our expertise in social design and our unique test-and-learn approach enables online retailers to maximize this sharing and drive sales uplift that has not been realized before."

About Sociable Labs

Sociable Labs helps online retailers maximize social sharing, referral traffic and conversions by optimizing the mix and design of its suite of social applications on ecommerce websites. At the core of the Sociable Labs solution is a test-and-learn ROI platform proven to deliver social sharing up to 20 times greater than Facebook Likes, and conversion rates up to 300 percent higher than Facebook fan page traffic. Sociable Labs is a privately held company based in San Mateo, Calif.  Customers include Rue La La, Backcountry, HauteLook and Chegg. Investors include Battery Ventures, Facebook/fbFund and Javelin Venture Partners. For more information about Sociable Labs, please visit www.sociablelabs.com.

(1) Sucharita Mulpuru, "The State of Retailing Online 2011: Marketing, Social, And Mobile," Forrester, June 3, 2011.  

Media Contact:
Shannon Hutto
Bateman Group for Sociable Labs
(415) 503-1818 ext. 27
[email protected]

SOURCE Sociable Labs