Social media platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest (and Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and probably others) have been going hard on their in-app e-commerce efforts, a premise we’ve been talking about for quite some time here on Social Setting.
But are consumers really into it?
That’s what a new study from Bazaarvoice, a software company that allows brands to collect and display user-generated content (UGC) on their websites, sought to find out.
Turns out, it’s a lot. A reported 76% of people are influenced to shop on social media, according to a separate Bazaarvoice survey.
Bazaarvoice surveyed more than 14,000 global consumers to find out how they like to shop on social—whether they’re using their favorite platforms for product research and discovery or spontaneously purchasing upon sight, these are some of the study’s highlights jewelers may find useful.
It appears that the vast majority of those surveyed are open to purchasing on the apps but don’t visit them with the distinct purpose of doing so. Of those surveyed, 65% said they use social media for shopping inspiration; 61% shop when they stumble across something during their time on social media; 60% shop from influencer recommendations and links; and 60% shop from the content of the brands they follow. Only 38% agreed that they actively look for products to shop for on social, while 42% said they use social media for information gathering. And here’s an interesting note about word of mouth: 55% said they shop from recommendations from friends and family.
Those surveyed agreed that they find shipping inspiration across all platforms—that is, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, and Pinterest, and shop when stumbling across something in their feed on all platforms except YouTube. People reportedly use all platforms except Facebook for information gathering, while they only use Facebook to shop via recommendations from family and friends. Finally, the one platform users turn to for paid influencer recommendations is YouTube.
As far as shopping on social media versus in-store: A whopping 91% of users said they shop for beauty products on social, versus 44% who said they shop in-store. For apparel, 81% shop via social, while 57% said they shop in-store. The only product category that saw more in-store action was food and beverage (47% versus 58% in-store); while electronics was a close call—42% social media, 39% in-store.
In terms of who shoppers are influenced by, you might be surprised to learn that celebrities and influencers aren’t as, well, influential as you might think. Shoppers appear most influenced by subject matter experts (35%) on social media, while 23% said they’re influenced by social media stars (though 69% agreed they sometimes shop from influencers on social media). Five percent of those surveyed said they were influenced by celebrities.
New shopping experiences seem to be desirable to users on social media. A significant 53% said they’d be interested in shopping via a livestreaming event. While only 25% said they’d like to shop via augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR), it’s the sellers that aren’t delivering—only 1% of retailers surveyed said they’re using the technology to sell products.
You can see the infographic in its entirety, here.
Top: Image courtesy of Bazaarvoice
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