Social Shopping Helps Drive Traffic to Retail Sites
- Feb 5th, 2010
- Posted by Feran
- Posted in Facebook, Social Media, Social Shopping
There’s been a lot of talk around ‘Social Shopping’ lately. As a topic of particular interest and importance to Spring Creek Group, we’ve tried to share our insight and opinion regarding this fast-growing trend. You may have read our Pre-Holiday Season article, 5 Hot Social Shopping Trends to Watch For, or the interview with SCG Principal Clay McDaniel, Find out how social media can save you money. Both pieces discussed the topic of social shopping in both terms of the effect and benefit for the consumer as well as the retailer.
We all know, or are becoming increasingly aware, that social shopping is on the rise, and we know most large retailers have some kind of social media presence, and likewise, most retailers are realizing the benefits of having this presence in order to better reach and engage customers. But, what we do not always know is the actual impact social networking has on these major retail brands.
Hitwise, a leading online competitive intelligence service, has compiled some useful data on how the top 500 U.S. retailers reached consumers on social networking channels, specifically around the Holiday Season when online shopping is typically high. The category, “Social Networking and Forums” drove 37% more traffic in 2009 than the previous year and made up 13% of overall traffic sources to the retail company websites.
Additionally, “During the holidays over 2% of the traffic to Facebook (the 2nd ranked website in the US) visited a website in the Retail 500 immediately after,” Hitwise research director Heather Dougherty wrote.
Keep in mind, Hitwise isn’t measuring all retail activity occurring within this category as many companies’ social shopping approach isn’t always to direct users back to their websites but instead to make direct sales. But, these figures do still offer a better idea of social shopping’s growing significance, and give us a more confirmed sense of where social shopping is going. This in turn can help us as consumers know where our favorite brands’ advertisements and campaigns may be likely to live, so we can then look to these channels for deals, bargains and first hand information. And it can help us as Marketers to not only know who and where our brand ambassadors are, but to connect, listen and engage with them as well.
Read more about the results here:
http://weblogs.hitwise.com/heather-dougherty/2010/01/social_network_impact_for_reta.html
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