Phantom networks
Social media cannot be relied upon as a source of sales for both regular and new customers, according to a study by Forrester Research Inc.
The experts of the company came to this conclusion as a result of a study in which 77000 online purchases were studied between 1 and 14 on April of the current year.
The study showed that less than 1% of them can be traced to social networks, such as Facebook or Pinterest.
The conclusion is unexpected when you consider the results of the 5778 consumer survey conducted by the company in the third quarter of 2011.
Then 48% of respondents agreed with the statement that social media posts are "a great way to discover new products, brands, trends or retailers." And 40% agreed that these messages are "a great way to learn about sales and promotions."
The study report said that although consumers said they were interested in using social media as a tool to make purchases, this does not mean that they will immediately buy goods immediately after reading the message.
Analysis of the path to completion of the transaction showed that customers interact with many marketing channels, for example, email, visual and contextual advertising, before making a purchase.
According to the study, 48% of loyal customers and 33% of new customers did this in advance of the purchase.
E-commerce sites remain the channel with the highest conversions at around 30%.
Direct repeat visits, organic search, and PPC generate the most sales to new customers - 39%. Regular customers most often started their shopping journey with email.
The result of social media, which is rather pale against this background, is considered by a team of researchers as a sign that they have yet to realize their potential as a trading platform. And social media can be a powerful marketing tool.
Forrester also said that social media is much more a sales engine for small businesses that were not included in the study, retailer.ru reports.
Social media cannot be relied upon as a source of sales for both regular and new customers, according to a study by Forrester Research Inc. To this ...
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