This past holiday season, over 1,000 shoppers were asked if they purchased anything from a retailer’s Facebook page. Only 9% said yes. In addition, only one in five said that their social media connections influenced what they purchased over the holidays and only one in five purchased an item based on a promotion through Facebook. Meanwhile, Facebook blows past the 1 billion user mark. Yep, one billion users. When is the last time you heard that?
Internet commerce took some time to catch on – though North America has been slower to embrace it than Asian countries like Korea and Japan – but catch on it certainly did. As shoppers continue to rely on the internet to purchase everything from groceries to clothing and even cars, social commerce hasn’t quite caught on as quickly as was predicted.
Clearly, there is something missing.
For one, when most people are looking to shop for either themselves or someone else, Facebook probably isn’t the first site that comes to mind to shop for bargains. I know for myself, I will either Google a specific item for sales or troll various sites for other sales items.
The issue for me isn’t that I’m against actually using a deal or promotion found on Facebook. It’s all about timing. If I happen to catch a news feed post on a specific promotion that works at that moment, sure. Why not? But generally speaking, Facebook isn’t the first place that comes to mind when I’m looking to buy something.
I’m looking forward to what Facebook and certainly also what Google+ has in mind for 2012. I’m sure both are scrambling to have it figured out first.
