At Maveron, we always closely monitor how consumer behavior is shifting, and what impact these changes will have on consumer businesses today and in the future. Recently, we’ve noticed something critical; people are not just making more purchases online, they are changing the way they make those purchase.

Preliminary sales figures for Holiday 2009 show what most retailers already suspect; the Internet is capturing a larger and larger percentage of overall sales. A report from ShopperTrak RCT shows that shoppers spent $10.66 billion when they hit the malls on the day after Thanksgiving this year – only 0.5% more than last year. Yet web marketing analytics firm Coremetrics said its data showed the average amount online shoppers spent on Black Friday rose 35% to $170.19 per order – up from $126.04 last year.

The Internet has in just a few short years fundamentally changed the way consumers shop. Googling for promotion codes, reading and writing product reviews, using price comparison engines, expecting free shipping: all of these behaviors have become commonplace and have fundamentally changed the way consumers view their place in the buy-sell relationship. The Internet has caused the power to shift toward consumers, who demand better prices, more personal relevance, and more transparency in their purchases than ever before.

But as much as online shopping has already altered consumer behavior, we’ve noticed even bigger changes afoot recently. This holiday season, consumers are, for the first time, banding together to exert their purchase power; social shopping is here. Many consumers are turning toward social networks like Facebook and Twitter, invite-only sample sale communities like Gilt and Hautelook, coupon aggregators like RetailMeNot and CouponCabin, and deal blogs like FatWallet or Dealfinder to find the best discounts and bargains – and they’re sharing these deals with friends, family, and the wider web.

Data from Hitwise shows that downstream traffic to the Retail 500 coming from both Facebook and Twitter increased 36% and 15%, respectively, on Thanksgiving from the previous day. Downstream traffic to retailers grew again on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as many retailers promoted sales via fan pages and tweets. These kind of traffic and sales figures show why 47% of online retailers plan to increase their use of social media this holiday season, according to the National Retail Foundation.

A prime example of a new company that’s successfully harnessing the social shopping trend is GroupOn, which just raised $30M in Series B financing for its site which combines a deal of the day with a local twist. Essentially, GroupOn offers one great deal each day in a local area; this could be restaurant discount, a spa special, or theme park tickets. The social component is that the only way to get access to the deal is if enough people sign up to buy, giving consumers incentive to pass the deal along to friends.

But retailers should map out a strategic social shopping strategy if they want to succeed in this new world – not just blast out coupon codes to temporarily boost sales. To become a valued brand in the social shopping decade ahead, retailers need to:

• Develop a true multi-channel strategy, engaging consumers in a personalized way and on their terms wherever they are (online, mobile, in-store, call center, TV shopping etc.)
• Build a real community around their brand using all aspects of the social web (Facebook, Twitter, a brand blog, customer forums, mobile social networks, ratings & reviews sites etc.) to engage in an open, ongoing dialogue with customers.
• Explore crowdsourced product development to give consumers a real say in how their products evolve and change to meet consumer needs.
• Put authenticity at the center of everything they do: if a brand moves away from its roots and loses touch with its core consumers, they will suffer immensely, because consumers want credibility, transparency, and their voice to be heard.

We are still in the early days of social shopping, but the changes in consumer behavior brought about by the trend are here to stay. Smart consumer companies should focus on bringing their brand into the social shopping age in 2010.