Only 1% sales by social media

Social Media played a relatively small role than expected and could drive only 1% sales in the holiday season. The Black Friday online sales hit another records this year but the overall net impact of social media was not at all impressive. It was found that just about 1% of purchases and traffic on ecommerce websites for Black Friday and the week as a whole were directly generated by social networking sites.

This means that only 1% of online sales were conducted by the buyers who reached the retail sites by clicking on links on social networking sites. This has turned out to be a huge disappointment for companies and brands that have spent volumes of resources in social media campaigns and marketing activities.

However, the influence of social media in decision making process cannot be ignored. A large number of consumers look for products and their reviews on social media before going to any store. Shoppers may not go straight from seeing a product on Facebook or Pinterest to buying it on an ecommerce site, but rather stop off at a few other websites in between before finally making a purchase. The purchase behavior makes it tricky to check the actual impact of social media on sales made.

via SocialAppsHQ Blog http://www.socialappshq.com/blog/2013/12/02/only-1-sales-by-social-media/