Social media again makes its impact on shopping this season. A report from Tealeaf reveals that for the next period social channels carry a great weight for online shopping businesses. The Tealeaf Online Shopping Social  Media Buzz Report shows that an increase of over 200% during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday are owed to social conversations (such as via Twitter) as consumers would check online deals and share information.

Sites with non-working websites, incomplete information displayed on the website or slow-working sites of businesses are the main complaints of social media users. Such companies have been caught on the wrong foot as they did not correctly appreciate the importance of websites and social media through with information circulates at highest speeds.

A prediction approach reveals that starting with 2011 it is imperative for companies to have a social profile and also to monitor social channels in order to respond to customer demands. Social channels are a new tool for customer relationship management and through social channels customers own the power, instead of businesses.

Etailers will now be able to monitor customer services, namely online shopping issues such as problems with shopping carts and out of stock items, reasons for which a great number of (potential) customers never return for another shopping session.

A powerful marketing tool that fits perfectly the holidays period is LivingSocial’s 12 Days of Giving, a charity activity through which 1% of every Daily Deal is donated to DonorsChoose.org and GlobalLiving.