Building Communities: An Ecommerce Page from Blockchain’s Playbook

One of the aspects of the blockchain industry that many appreciate most is how it engenders a sense of community. Of course, every technology, market and company can create a tribe around it, but blockchain projects take this to the next level in how fervent their communities are and how the projects tap into that excitement to drive results.

This community dynamic is partially historical. Bitcoin as an alternate form of currency attracted an existing community with a particular worldview about the current financial system. Blockchain technology also aligned very closely with the views of a passionate community of open source developers, and the problems blockchain solved focused on transparency and enabling transactions in trustless environments. This technical solution helped break down previous barriers to forging communities.

However, blockchain’s community ethos really spawned from the decentralized nature of blockchain itself. Blockchain’s success and adoption stem from the fact that no single authority controls it. In its pure form, the community of users collectively own the blockchain, and the larger the community is, the more protected the blockchain is from outside attack and influence.

That same approach has extended to the many decentralized projects and applications that have launched using blockchain technology. Community adoption is key to their business model and, in many cases, the source of their funding as community crowdfunding through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) was the primary fundraising mechanism for many of these projects. As a result, projects succeeded in creating enormous, passionate communities of fans who were not only excited about the project’s goals but also partial owners of the project and thus financially invested in helping to assure the project’s success.

Commerce has long been community-oriented, and ecommerce has been creating communities since its beginnings — a trend that has only accelerated as it has become easier than ever to form digital communities. From early loyalty program approaches to peer-to-peer marketplaces like eBay and Etsy, flash sale sites like Groupon and now social buying models like PinDuoDuo that are particularly active in Asia, the ability to foster and energize a global community of buyers has become a hallmark of ecommerce success. Blockchain is further opening up how community can drive commerce as projects use the technology to decentralize various parts of the industry. It seems clear that buyers increasingly want to come together and benefit from being part of a community.

So how can ecommerce retailers take a page out of the blockchain project’s playbook and create the same kind of fervent community that so many of these projects have?

1. Open up the conversation: Blockchain projects have relied heavily on social channels to engage and grow their community. It takes time and work, but when done well, your customers and fans will feel like they are buying from a real person and often get as much out of interacting with each other as with you.
2. Gamify the community: Blockchain marketers are frequently experts at creating incentives that encourage community participation and growth. By generating some friendly, public competition within their community, ecommerce retailers can rally their community. Often, this starts with low-commitment efforts like retweeting or sharing on social media and then expands to community members creating videos and content on behalf of the retailer, referring friends, and even purchasing themselves. Retailers do need to be careful that the community does not become only about the competition, but it can be a great way to get the community working together and engaged.
3. Tell a story beyond the transaction: Every ecommerce retailer has a story to tell beyond the purchase. Blockchain projects get their community excited about the project’s potential and the role the community can play in realizing it. Ecommerce retailers create community when they connect at a similar level, whether it is for a cause (like TOMS and Warby Parker), a story of humble beginnings (like Nasty Gal), or even superior craftsmanship (like DODOcase). The story becomes the glue that holds the community together.
4. Make the community feel like owners: Blockchain projects have an advantage here because so many of the projects actually allow their community to share in the financial ownership of the project. As decentralization disrupts the ecommerce value chain, it may make sense for some ecommerce retailers to follow this path and use the blockchain to transform their customers and community into owners. However, ecommerce retailers can often achieve that goal in other ways. For example, Betabrand allows their community to submit design ideas and then vote and crowdfund to turn those ideas into items for sale.

As inherently community-driven efforts, blockchain projects have quickly honed the process of creating, engaging, growing and shaping a community to help make the project successful. Ecommerce retailers have many of the same opportunities to use community to drive their brand and sales growth. By adopting the strategies and tactics that have enabled strong blockchain project communities, ecommerce retailers will be well-positioned to harness the power of their communities.

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