May 31, 2011 – Shoppers are willing to interact with retailers through a variety of
social networks and retailers have limitless opportunities to capitalize
on the momentum, according to the 2011 Social Commerce Study, a joint
research project by Shop.org, comScore and Social Shopping Labs.
May 27, 2011 – Shoppers are willing to interact with retailers through a
variety of social networks and retailers have limitless opportunities
to capitalize on the momentum, according to the 2011 Social Commerce
Study, a joint research project by Shop.org, comScore and Social
Shopping Labs. The report, which evaluates shopping directly influenced
by social media, polled 1787 adult online shoppers in April 2011.
The survey found that:
- 42 percent of online consumers have “followed” a retailer
proactively through Facebook, Twitter or a retailer’s blog, and the
average person follows about six retailers. - The majority of respondents (58%) said they follow companies to
find deals, while nearly half (49%) say they want to keep up to date on
products. More than one-third also follow retailers for information on
contests and events (39%). - More than half of Facebook users (56%) say they have clicked
through to a retailer’s website because of a Facebook post, while over
two-thirds of Twitter users (67%) say a post has spurred them to click
through to a website. - One-third of shoppers say they would be likely to make a purchase directly from Facebook (35%) or Twitter (32%).
- 42 percent of Twitter users access the site on their mobile phone
at least once a day, while the same is true for 34 percent of Facebook
users. In addition, about one-third (32%) of people view YouTube clips
daily from their smartphones. - Nearly half of consumers (47%) have accessed customer reviews in
store using their mobile device with men (55%) more likely to access
these reviews in store than women (39%). - Eight in 10 (82%) online consumers are aware of group-buying sites,
though only 19 percent of survey respondents have actually made a
purchase through one of the sites. Those who do leverage group-buying
sites appear to be enthusiasts, as the majority of consumers (57%) have
spent over $100 through these sites to date. - The majority of shoppers say they have purchased non-traditional
retail items like food and drinks (18%), entertainment (16%), and
personal care items (12%) through these sites.
The report also evaluated awareness and usage of location-based
applications like Foursquare, Yelp and Gowalla. On the basis of sheer
awareness among consumers, these platforms are still in the early growth
stage among consumers: Foursquare has the highest awareness (16%),
followed by Yelp (10%) and Gowalla (6%).
Print this page
