For months we’ve been running blog stories on the marriage of e-commerce and social networking, strongly recommending that retailers and merchants everywhere consider making social networking integration part of their immediate future. Quite simply, social shopping is the “it” the trend that is going to define e-commerce for the foreseeable future.
And now we have even more data to justify that theory!
In fact, quite a few retailers aren’t just diving into the world of social networking, they’re embracing it in a big way. Facebook’s recent changes with regard to how users can support or “like” brands in particular has led to even more retailers increasing their presence on the site. As a result, many are being rewarded with customers who are not only regular social networking users, but some of the biggest online spenders out on the web.
Our colleagues over at comScore Inc. unveiled some data earlier this week that proves just that and also shows that the landscape of social networking users is changing. Their review of Q1 2010 e-commerce spending revealed that regular Facebook and Twitter users spend more online than run-of-the-mill internet users, and by quite a bit.
The report breaks down online shopping tendencies for both Facebook and Twitter regulars based on how much they visit the social networking sites—designating them “heavy”, “medium” and “light” users—compared to web surfers who don’t utilize either Facebook or Twitter (designated “non-visitors” by comScore).
Non-visitors overall purchased an average of less than $50 worth of products during the first quarter of the year, well below what their counterparts spent over the same three months.
On Facebook, there was a direct correlation between amount of time spent on the site and the amount of money spent online. “Heavy” users, representing the top 20 percent of visitors based on time spent on the site, spent an average of $67 in the first quarter, while “medium” and “light” users spent about $61 and $50 respectively. Those in the non-visitor category for Facebook represented the lowest amount money spent of any category for either site–$27.
There wasn’t quite the same connection between time spent and money spent for Twitter regulars, where “medium” users were actually the biggest spenders at $75 for the quarter and “light” visitors were right behind them at $73. “Heavy” Twitter users reported $63 spent during the quarter. Non-visitors reported average first-quarter spending of about $43.
One of the most important points to take away from all of this information is that those retailers who are targeting consumers on Facebook and Twitter are going after web users who actually do spend money online, which can only help contribute to the growth of sales on social networking sites.
But what really stands out to us in seeing such a spending disparity between the haves and have-nots of social networking is that the demographics of Facebook and Twitter’s audiences are changing. With more middle-aged and older users joining the ranks of regular users, these sites are no longer dominated by younger users with lower disposable incomes. Instead, Facebook and Twitter users on the whole are evolving into a more tech savvy group overall, most of whom are well-versed in online shopping and have the resources to spend a bit more freely.
If you’re a merchant who has yet to branch out to social networking, this should be the final push you need to get going! Leave us your thoughts and comments!
