Jul 3, 2007 6:01 AM, PROMO Xtra
Social Sites Don't Have Much Impact on E-Retail Sales: JuptierResearch
Despite the popular of social networking sites and other online communities, they have little effect on influencing online retail sales, a new report has found.
Such sites are only driving about 12% of online shoppers to buy more than planned, the study by JupiterResearch found.
The effectiveness of these sites, like MySpace, in driving retail sales is still emerging.
Some 53% of people making online purchases go directly to the retailer's site versus 3% using blogs.
"From a branding and advertising perspective, social and community sites are garnering a great deal of influence online," Patti Freeman Evans, senior analyst with JupiterResearch, said in a statement. "But when researching a product online, shoppers are looking for fundamental information, not entertainment or social interaction. In the end, the consumer is still interested in convenience and efficiency and social and community sites are just not that efficient."
The report also found that social and community sites help reaffirm purchase decisions as 29% of online shoppers say they make better decisions after using these sites, JupiterResearch said.
"There is a propensity to gravitate toward what is considered to be the latest and greatest method of getting noticed without knowing for certain that this particular tactic will work," said David Schatsky, President of JupiterResearch, in a statement. "Retailers would be better served to take a step back and evaluate how effective tactics really are—and with whom—to make a stronger impact with the right audiences rather than succumbing to trends."
The report is called "U.S. Retail Consumer Survey, 2007."
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