UK consumers unconvinced by Facebook commerce
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Almost half of UK consumers are not interested in buying products via social commerce, such as Facebook stores, according to a study.
The study, conducted by Havas Media Social and Lightspeed Research, suggests that despite the retail industry hailing social commerce as the “next big thing”, 89% of people have not bought a single product through Facebook and 44% are not interested in doing so.
Retailers and brands including HMV, Asos, Bulldog and French Connection have all launched Facebook stores in recent months.
Consumers cite a lack of reassurance about security as one of the main reasons they would choose not to shop via a social network, highlighting the need for more consumer education about social commerce.
About two thirds of consumers (65%) say they would not be willing to buy big ticket items via social networks and would only be prepared to spend between £1 and £50, with only 6% of people saying they would be willing to buy a holiday on the platform.
Product exclusivity is the key factor in persuading consumers to purchase products via social networks, with one quarter of consumers saying they would buy a product through Facebook if it was not available anywhere else and 11% saying they would buy something if it was offered only to “fans” of the brand.
The majority of consumers (70%) also feel that targeted advertising based on interests or shopping behaviour, similar to Amazon’s model, would make them more likely to buy products on social networks.
The most preferred place for consumers to redeem special offers, regardless of if the offers were advertised on Facebook, still remains the brand’s official website.
Amy Kean, director of social media for Havas Media Social, says: “Based on industry predictions and the rate of innovation in this space, social commerce is likely to become a reality - but there’s still a lot more work for brands to do to help consumers get their heads around it. It is the understanding of social behaviours - not the technology - that we need to prioritise.”
The study represents the responses of a survey to a representative sample of 1,007 UK social networkers.
Readers' comments (5)
Ardi Kolah | Fri, 1 Jul 2011 6:45 pm
The key to the issue is understanding behaviour of those on FaceBook. It's unlikely that all of them will be in some kind of shopping mood, but want to chat to their friends. As the saying goes, you may be ready to sell, but are your customers ready to buy?
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Kat Matfield | Mon, 4 Jul 2011 10:53 am
It's a mistake to assume that social commerce on Facebook is limited to just purchasing through the site.
My company (Reevoo) has just conducted some research that asked a broader range of questions about using Facebook as a shopping tool.
Our results show that, while very few are currently purchasing through the site, 39% of people use it for product research, whether that be by looking on retailer/brand pages or looking for advice or recommendations.
Selling on Facebook is only one aspect of social commerce.
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Simon Hayhurst | Mon, 4 Jul 2011 12:32 pm
Savvy marketers will know that the sales process doesn't start and finish with the sale itself.
Most marketing textbooks will explain that for a non-impulse purchase, consumers typically go through a number of well-documented stages:
- Problem awareness
- Information search
- Alternative evaluation
- Purchase
- Post purchase
Social media is an increasingly powerful medium for stage 2 (where people ask their peers about a potential purchase) and stage 5 (where people tell their peers exactly what they thought of the product they bought).
Just because consumers say they are not interested in actually buying products through social media doesn't mean that marketers can safely ignore it.
Indeed the insights a marketer can glean from using social media to peek at how customers talk about their brand/product experiences to their friends could be used to markedly sharpen their proposition, channel and media strategies.
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AskTheWife | Tue, 5 Jul 2011 11:55 am
Making a social networking purchase / decision appears to be more time consuming. The company that joins up the search, evaluation, purchase and post prchase is onto a winner.
In addition: Facebook has not achieved that all important 'Trusted Advisor' status as yet.
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Ralph Risk | Tue, 5 Jul 2011 12:23 pm
I agree with the comments above. Social commerce has become a large focus for many brands and it is important that they determine success criteria when defining their strategy.
Direct social commerce may not be growing as quickly as some people may want, but referrals and brand awareness can still mean social commerce strategies can be classed as a success for a brand.
As also mentioned, a large part of the buying process is now using the Internet as a reviewing site as well as for price comparison .
Social networks commerce sites can be another tool for brands to get in front of the consumer, even if they do not directly purchase for the social store.
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