Shoppers are willing to interact with retailers through a variety of social networks, and retailers have limitless opportunities to capitalize on the momentum, according to the "2011 Social Commerce Study", a joint research project by Shop.org, comScore and Social Shopping Labs. The report, which evaluates shopping directly influenced by social media, polled 1,787 adult online shoppers in April 2011.
According to the survey, 42 percent of online consumers have "followed" a retailer proactively through Facebook, Twitter or a retailer's blog, and the average person follows about six retailers. While shoppers' reasoning for following a retailer varies, the majority of respondents (58 percent) said they follow companies to find deals, while nearly half (49 percent) say they want to keep up to date on products. More than one-third also follow retailers for information on contests and events (39 percent).
