The usefulness of social media sites for enterprises is limited to marketing activities, according to a consumer research firm.
"Social media is first and foremost a marketing tool. It is a way of putting across the brand's personality in a more tangible way than adverts," said Danielle Pinnington, managing director at Shoppercentric, which conducted the research.
Retailer and brand web sites are far more popular avenues for e-commerce sales among consumers than social media sites, the research found.
Shoppercentric reports that 63 per cent of consumers visit a retailer or brand web site to make a purchase compared with just six per cent who purchase goods through social media.
She added that, contrary to what some industry experts predict, sites such as Facebook are useful for promoting marketing messages, but transactions will continue to be best processed through company web sites.
"It is a very new trend that sees Facebook encroaching into the role of web sites. If Facebook starts to overlap too much with commerce web sites, it raises the question, why do you have the two touch points?"
She added that the key advantage of Facebook is that it gives consumers the opportunity to communicate one to one with brands, immediately.
"If you comment on a brand's Facebook page, you will get a reply within an hour; it feels like you're talking to the brand. On a corporate web site, if you leave a comment, it feels like it disappears," said Pinnington.
"Facebook has a more immediate role – but the transaction side is not so important because web sites are doing that bit brilliantly."
The research also showed that the majority (54 per cent) of respondents said they think the reason that brands and retailers were present on social media was simply to sell more products, while 43 per cent also thought that they were there "because everyone else is".
The findings are based on 1,000 interviews using an online panel with adults aged 18 to 64. The qualitative research consisted of two focus groups of 18-to-35-year-old shoppers who use social media. Half of the respondents also had to have smartphones. In addition four industry interviews were completed.
There's nothing in this piece that says that social commerce won't take off.
"Shoppercentric reports that 63 per cent of consumers visit a retailer or brand web site to make a purchase compared with just six per cent who purchase goods through social media."
Yes - because there are very few stores, so why would they? You could say the same of websites ten years ago.
"It is a very new trend that sees Facebook encroaching into the role of web sites. If Facebook starts to overlap too much with commerce web sites, it raises the question, why do you have the two touch points?"
You could say the same about mobile sites. Different stores for different commerce strategies.
Posted by: Neil Major (Vexed Digital) 30 Mar 2011
I've been studying Mark Zuckerberg for a while and I think FB certainly has a bright commercial and E-commerce future. Integrated shop-fronts with FB places is the first step towards a far more integrated solution. I don't think people actually realize how far FB is integrated into people's everyday lives/social fabric....
Posted by: Praz 01 Mar 2011
These kinds of predictions have been made before.
Nobody has a crystal ball. Not this author of this article, not a think tank, not even the vendors themselves who might benefit most from such statistics.
Who would have thought an online auction (eBay) would make it when launched? Now it's a standard model for millions of auction sites
Or that social media itself would be so popular.
What is important is that these social media sites will "evolve" and become better sales sites, or innovate platforms that combine auctions, and interactive buying platforms, or seize the moment, store credit card data in each person's account, and offer discounts if they buy from FB or Twitter as opposed to the retailers' or vendors' sites themselves....
Of course, I could predict that they do these things, it is up to them to carry them out, but i am no better a predictor of things than anyone else.
What is certain, is that social media is here to stay, it has survivability if the industry innovates, and will crash and burn and fade if it doesn't.
To the victor goes the spoils.
Posted by: Samuel Clemons 01 Mar 2011
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