Social Sharings Impact on Online Purchases | IMGrind.com

By Eric on Apr 01, 2012 with Comments 0

The question of just how much social media interaction affects commerce is asked quite often. Proponents of search advertising would like you to believe that it has some affect but that people who want to buy things mostly use search engines to get information and find their way to wherever they will buy from. On the other hand, companies and fans of social media tend to tout that ?social? is the driver of opinions therefore trust, which translates to sales for savvy companies who build their reputation and use social interaction properly and if you are not on that bandwagon, you will be left behind very soon.? The truth is probably somewhere between the two sides, but it is undeniable that social sharing online does drive commerce in certain ways.

According to a recent report by Social Labs, 25% of online shoppers who have made a purchase and logged in to Facebook monthly have made a purchase based on a social recommendation. The report also showed that 62% of respondents had seen a comment on their page from a friend about a purchase, 75% clicked through a link to check it out, 53% bought the product and 81% identified themselves as social sharers.

So what is driving this? The top reason for social comments is deal sharing, so friends can get the same deal and benefit.? Another significant finding in the study was that there are big opportunities in social proofing for for sites. When users see a list of friends who have used a site or purchased from it, they are more likely to trust that site and do the same.

On the other side, respondents in the study didn?t want to look like they were pushing a product and they also were concerned that the things they were sharing were too trivial, so there is some balance in how and what things are shared.

I also believe there are certain products that lend themselves to social sharing commerce, such as books and entertainment that are easy to form an opinion on. Friends who suggest books to read or movies to see are great drivers for this commerce, while suggestions on other types of products that are not as easy to draw and opinion on or that no one really cares about, but needs, are less likely to be shared.

At the end of the day, there are huge opportunities to engage social users in many ways that can benefit your business if you make your offering share worthy and follow it up with great service to meet the expectations of online shoppers and social users.

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Filed Under: Advertising ? Social Media

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