This July, JupiterResearch, a leading authority on the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on business, released its latest US Retail Consumer Survey. What the researchers discovered after surveying approximately 2,000 online shoppers was that a majority (53 percent) went directly to retailer and manufacturer sites to research and purchase products, rather than using shopping comparison sites or social and/or community networking sites.
"The use of traditional resources such as retailer Web sites continues to dominate shoppers' behavior," according to the JupiterResearch report. "While social and community sites and content offer some value, they are only driving a small portion of online shoppers (12 percent) to buy more than planned."
Similar research by MarketingSherpa, a research firm specializing in tracking what works in all aspects of marketing (and what does not), supports the JupiterResearch findings. "Social and community network sites have an impact," said Stefan Tornquist, the research director for MarketingSherpa, "but I wouldn't call that impact direct or considerable at this stage."
Does this mean that social and community sites have no place in an online retailer's marketing plan? Not necessarily, say both JupiterResearch Senior Analyst Patti Freeman Evans, who was the lead analyst on the survey, and Tornquist.
The Role of Social and Community Sites in E-tail Marketing Despite their negligible impact on sales, social and community networking sites do play a role in how consumers perceive a company's brand, products and/or services.
"The big opportunity in the social arena is really in branding and advertising and awareness building," explained Freeman Evans. Additionally, "29 percent of online shoppers say they make better decisions after using these sites," according to the report.
And, as MarketingSherpa's Tornquist points out, certain products, particularly ones that are complex or have enthusiasts who like to chat about them, benefit from being talked about on social or community sites. So depending on your brand, product mix and/or services, it may behoove you to include certain social and/or community sites in your marketing plan, whether it's to post comments, advertise or run promotions on these sites.
But for generating online sales, said Freeman Evans, online retailers get "the best bang for the buck" by "providing user reviews on their Web site, because they immediately help consumers make decisions."
Indeed, more and more, retail sites are providing consumers with all the information they need — product specs, pricing and customer reviews — in one place, forgoing the need to check out third-party sites. That kind of convenience is very important to online shoppers, over a third of which, according to the report, only visit one Web site when researching and purchasing a product.
Google Versus the Shopping Comparison Sites While the survey revealed that social and community networking sites play a pretty minor role in driving online sales, the researchers found that Google still played a relatively major role, especially when compared to shopping comparison sites, social and community networking sites and third-party blogs.
Indeed, according to the report, Google now drives 15 percent of traffic to retailers' Web sites, compared to just 3 percent for shopping comparison sites, though the reports' authors theorize that the latter's users may be more qualified, that is, more likely to buy something when they reach their desired shopping destination.
Making Smart Marketing Choices So in light of the JupiterResearch report's findings, is there a magic formula for determining where online retailers should focus their online marketing dollars, especially if they have a limited budget? As Freeman Evans emphasized, a lot of it depends on your particularly business. However, "if you really need to ring the register and acquire customers," she said, "it's probably best to focus on things that drive users directly to your Web site, such as search engine marketing, affiliate marketing, e-mail marketing and those all-important user reviews."
David Schatsky, the president of JupiterResearch, offered this insight: "There is a propensity to gravitate toward what is considered to be the latest and greatest method of getting noticed without knowing for certain that this particular (method) will work. Retailers would be better served to take a step back and evaluate how effective tactics really are — and with whom — to make a stronger impact with the right audiences rather than succumbing to trends."
Put another way, there's no harm in trying out an intriguing new marketing opportunity, but before you pour thousands of dollars into a particular method, test it out, say the experts. Then, if the traffic and dollars come, or if they don't, you will know if that particular method or vehicle is the right one for your online business.
Jennifer Lonoff Schiff is a business writer and a regular contributor to Ecommerce-Guide.com.
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