Social commerce was an undeniable trend in 2011 and will continue to impact our economy in the coming years.  Now more than ever consumers are online, sharing and exchanging ideas on products and services they want to buy or sell. The act of buying online has become inherently social – the consumer is extremely influenced by his friends and their extended network.

Increasingly, businesses are incorporating social aspects to online retail with the ability to log in on their sites with their social network credentials.

As this infographic from bsite testing and personalization firm Monetate shows (see full infographic below), the interest of online consumers who prefer creating a guest account to those who prefer social logins has flipped from 2010 to 2011. Consumers now prefer to login to an e-commerce site using their social user names. Two out of every 5 users (almost 40 percent) prefer social login to e-commerce sites over creating a new or guest account.

The infographic reveals more than 75 percent of online purchases requiring registration never materialize, as consumers make a last minute decision to ditch their shopping cart instead of going through the process of making a new account.

On average 50 percent of respondents say they share comments about their products over social networks, and 59 percent say user and expert reviews on social networks affect their buying behavior.  Moreover, 68 percent of consumers visit social networking sites to read product reviews before buying a product.

About 80 percent of US social network users prefer to connect with products and brands through Facebook. An average user spends nearly 55 hours a month on social networks like Facebook, talks about a range of products, brands experiences with friends.

Does social media affect how we spend money?

Years 2010 and 2011 saw very strong growth for social commerce startups. Social sites like Facebook, Twitter, Groupon, Google+, and EBay etc. saw strong growth in their user bases as well.

Social commerce is not just an opportunity for startups, but also a huge opportunity for e-merchants. By distributing their products and better offers ‘on’ or rather ‘through’ social networks, merchants can actually blow up the visibility of their products.

Promotional offers can become almost viral. New mechanisms for interactions such as the Like button can be used to multiply visibility. According to the Adobe Digital Index report,, merchants are now measuring the impact of website traffic from major social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Blogger, YouTube and Yelp.

This study shows that marketers tend to default to traditional direct measurement models. Better metrics around social marketing trends will lead to better ROI.  First-click attribution models lead to more social media engagement in buying a product process. The study also suggests the difference in the results of first-click vs. last-click attribution may cause marketers to think and plan how they allocate the budgets across social and other digital channels.

Ideas, opinions, audiovisual content and status updates have become part of what makes social media such a powerful force. Businesses are among the first to realize that by facilitating the exchange of information, they get better results.

Social opportunities for trade 

The results of a recent analysis of online shopping behavior conducted by Billeo, Inc., creator of apps that help consumers save time and money while shopping or paying bills online, show that online shopping presents a huge opportunity for brands and merchants looking to increase customer loyalty, and financial institutions that need to drive card use.

The data specifies that rewards programs can have a direct impact on a persons’ online shopping experience, what brand they prefer and what card they use to transact. Offers that include miles have a 17 percent click-to-conversion rate, versus the 3 percent click-to-conversion rate of offers that do not offer points or miles.

“Our analysis shows that online shoppers are almost six times more likely to use an offer that includes miles, compared to one that does not,” said Murali Subbarao CEO of Billeo, Inc. “The rising cost of airfare has turned earning miles into a significant motivator for consumers who are shopping online.”

Merchants can also become their own social network, creating “profile pages” for their consumers (those who want it) with  activity streams, comments, etc.

Monetate Marketing Infographics