25/11/11
By Karen Moss
Twelve per cent of social media users have been encouraged to make a purchase from a Facebook store after seeing something on the site. According to the latest eCustomerServiceIndex (eCSI) results from eDigitalResearch and IMRG, the results mark an incredible 8.8 per cent growth in f-commerce in just four months.
The study also found that a staggering 25 per cent of online consumers now log onto Facebook more than once a day, representing a considerable proportion of all shoppers and a massive opportunity for retailers.
The eCSI study also found that an impressive 97 per cent of online shoppers plan to log onto the internet this Christmas to browse and buy gifts. Over a quarter (27 per cent) of consumers will access the internet from their smartphone to browse and buy, whilst another nine per cent will use their tablet devices to do the same.
Derek Eccleston, Research Director at eDigitalResearch, explains: “This is an exciting Christmas for retailers and marks the first truly multichannel Christmas we’ve seen. We’ve been tracking the growth of smartphones and tablet devices over the past two years and these results show that this will possibly be the first year that Christmas shoppers will be using their social media accounts, smartphones, laptops and tablet devices to buy gifts. The fact that we’ve seen an increase of 8.8 per cent in fCommerce over a very short period of time is no surprise, and retailers continue to use Facebook to talk and sell to their customers”.
David J Smith, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at IMRG, says: “Facebook and other social media sites play a crucial role for retailers in terms of engagement with consumers. Although these results reveal that 12 per cent have been encouraged to make a purchase through Facebook, the channel is about far more than recording sales. Social networks have become an integral part of the internet and consumers feel that they can trust opinions on the platform as they are those of their friends and family. With 61 per cent saying that they have been influenced by a negative review, managing the perception of a retailer’s brand has never been so important, or so difficult.”
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