Do Consumers Actually Shop Directly on Social Media Platforms [New Data]
By pbump@hubspot.com (Pamela Bump)
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When the COVID-19 pandemic began, many consumers raced online to buy products they couldn’t get in-store. And, by July 2020, global retail ecommerce sites cumulatively saw a record 22 billion monthly visits.
As brands scrambled to offer more products and services online, social media platforms — such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp –began rolling out ecommerce tools to help businesses sell more items directly from their social pages.
Now, as social media networks continue to expand on in-platform shopping tools, it’s clear that social media ecommerce is gaining steam. But, as with any new marketing trend, you might wonder, “Are consumers actually buying products while surfing social media?”
The question above is worth asking. As a marketer, creating an online catalog or ecommerce process — even with the help of an intuitive social media platform — takes time and effort.
Not only will you need to determine which products will be sold online and how you’ll deliver them to customers, but there might also be a technological learning curve for your team. Odds are, you’ll want to know that consumers are actively using social media shopping tools before you enable them
To help you determine if social media shopping features are worth considering, I asked 467 consumers if they’d ever purchased products on social media platforms.
Do Consumers Actually Buy Products on Social Media?
There are now more ways than ever to buy products on social media. But, since some social media shopping tools are still rather new to shoppers and brands, you might think consumers have barely used them yet.
But, when we asked, “Have you ever purchased a product directly from a social media platform? If so which one(s)?” more than 50% of consumers had purchased a product on at least one platform.
Of the 49.5% of respondents that haven’t purchased a product directly from a social media platform, 9% said they still plan to do so eventually, while 40.5% say they prefer to buy products from ecommerce websites. Although that 9% of consumers who plan to shop on social media one day seems like a small number, it could grow as social media shopping tools gain more use, popularity, or trust in the coming months.
Ultimately, while social media shopping features are still fairly new to consumers, they might make sense for brands that are looking for a scalable way to enter the ecommerce world.
Below I’ll dive into the four social media platforms consumers say they’ve purchased products from and how they could be useful for brands.
Which social media platforms are consumers really shopping on?
More than one-third of the survey respondents above have purchased a product directly from Facebook.
Facebook’s online shopping popularity isn’t surprising. Even before the 2020 launch of Facebook Shops, users flocked to Facebook Marketplace to find items or products being sold by residents nearby, independent sellers, or even local stores.
While Facebook Marketplace is …read more
Source:: HubSpot Blog
