A new survey of online shoppers finds a strong correlation between consumer purchases and "social sharing," or when friends share shopping finds online in the retail sense. For instance, the survey found that 62 percent of respondents have read product-related comments from their friends on Facebook.
The survey of 1,088 online shoppers who use Facebook was conducted between January 15 and February 8 and sponsored by Sociable Labs, a provider of on-site social commerce solutions.
Even closer to purchase time, 75 percent of respondents admitted that they clicked on the product link in their friend's Facebook post, taking them to the product page on the retailer's website. Of those who clicked through in this way, 53 percent made a purchase.
The primary benefit shoppers experience with social sharing is product discovery ("It helps me find a product I might want to buy"). Of those surveyed, 48 percent of shoppers agreed that social sharing is "extremely helpful" or "very helpful" when shopping for a product.
Beyond social sharing, the survey found that "Social Proofing" — the use of social sharing content to show friend activity directly on an e-commerce site — significantly increases shopper confidence in a retailer's site. A third of respondents agreed they are more likely to stay and shop on retailer sites that show people who have shopped on that site. That number increases to 62 percent if some of those people are their friends. In addition, 57 percent of shoppers are more likely to make a purchase from sites that show friends who have purchased there before.
"We found that consumers discover what products to buy through social sharing, and then act on that information 75 percent of the time," said Darby Williams, VP of marketing at Sociable Labs, in a statement. "Retailers have the ability to trigger this kind of sharing from their ecommerce sites, driving both significant referral visits and conversion uplift if they fully leverage it."