Increased consumer interest in social media shopping identified

Monday, September 28, 2015 - 11:10 by Graham Miller

The results of a new YouGov poll suggest that more people are getting used to the idea of using social media services to carry out safe shopping online.

The report, funded by commerce firm, Bronto, analysed the willingness of consumers in the UK to use integrated e-commerce features on social media sites to make purchases. And it found that almost a third of shoppers are attuned to this as a concept, thanks largely to the fact that more and more sites are actually offering such functionality.

On average, a person who uses social media to buy an item via safe shopping online will spend just over £55 in a single transaction, which is a figure which analysts have used to estimate the size of the so-called ‘social commerce’ market for the entire country as £900 million a year.

Report spokesperson, Georges Berzgal, spoke about the potential size of this market and said that with many consumers poised to use social media more actively in their search for shopping opportunities, retailers would be advised to start taking this part of the market seriously.

Berzgal also spoke about different trends in social commerce based on the ages of consumers, stating that while millennials are more likely to buy from social media sites, it is still entirely possible to appeal to the over 35s with the right approach.

Sites like Facebook and Twitter have been trialling e-commerce integration for some time, with the arrival of embedded buttons. These let people carry out purchases on the site, without taking them to a third party retail platform, particularly important in this area.

Of course, modern consumers tend to use a range of services to shop, using the internet and real world stores to research products and make purchases. So social media is set to become just another part of this marketplace.