Twitter encourages online shopping, according to research

Friday, March 14, 2014 - 11:17 by Graham Miller

A new study from Nielsen has revealed that Twitter users are highly likely to shop online via m-commerce, indicating that this social networking service has a high chance of influencing purchases.

94 per cent of people who have a Twitter account are active participants in the m-commerce world. And researchers also found out some interesting things about the habits of this group of consumers.

Two distinct phases of the m-commerce process were identified, with the first being the arrival of the consumer on the website and then adding items to the basket. Checking out and actually going through with a purchase via safe shopping online is highlighted as being a distinct and different action altogether, showing that there is a need for retailers and advertisers to capitalise on consummating the deal at this point.

56 per cent of Twitter fans who responded to the study said that content which crops up on the social service while they are in the middle of making an online purchase, can have a significant influence on their decision over whether or not to go through with the transaction.

33 per cent said that something that they had encountered via Twitter later led to them buying a product from an m-commerce site.

This is good news for Twitter itself, because of course it needs to monetise its extensive platform and make sure that advertising revenues are enough to turn a profit.

79 per cent of users said that they are directly engaged with brands on Twitter by following official accounts, in the hope that special offers and deals will be handed out through this channel.

66 per cent said that simply being able to experience a brand's feed, irrespective of offers and other perks, was a good enough reason to engage through Twitter. So its power for m-commerce is still growing.