Newly-published research by MPG Media Contacts and Lightspeed Research has found that a growing number of consumers are using social media sites, such as Facebook, to get inspiration when shopping online.
A third of respondents said that their online purchasing decisions had been influenced by brand pages on social network sites. This figure was higher for younger shoppers (in the 18-34 years of age category), where nearly half were inspired by images or sought recommendations for purchases and/or sought opinions on their purchases on social media sites.
Online shoppers said that they wanted retailers to make their websites more social, so that they can share photos, videos and product reviews. This is not new; a survey earlier this year by nToklo found that shoppers want a more social and personal shopping experience and are seeking out more reviews and recommendations from other users – click here.
However, while shoppers want retailers to get more social, shoppers are still reluctant to use links from social sites to buy online. Three quarters of respondents admitted that they had never followed a link from Facebook to make an online purchase.
Interestingly, while m-commerce is growing rapidly [click here], consumers are still reluctant to purchase via their mobile devices due to security concerns, with 27 per cent of respondents saying that they had never made a purchase via their mobiles.
The conclusion that online retailers should draw from this research is that, whilst online shoppers want to ‘window-shop’, they also need to be inspired and be able to share photos and product reviews with their friends: the more social the website, the greater the sales.
