Social Shopping: One Step Further

Last week I blogged about social shopping and the different sites I like to engage in to shop online. On Saturday, Yahoo News published the article Social Networks Make Push as Shopping Destinations, which details how Facebook and Twitter now want to play a bigger role in social shopping.

Social shopping is transitioning into the term 'social commerce' because of the vast growth it has experienced. Facebook and Twitter want to further social commerce by adding a buy button to their ads that would directly link the consumer to make a purchase through their social media account.

Facebook has played a part in social shopping for quite some time, but it never has seemed to be successful among consumers. Facebook offers opportunities to buy gift cards to give to people on their birthdays and also purchase games. However, many people do not feel secure buying something through social media. In fact, only about five percent of consumers have made a purchase though social media. Though there is potential to increase the number of buyers because 20 percent of consumers would consider making a purchase.

Facebook and Twitter both understand the challenges of getting consumers to make the purchase and realize placing a “buy” button on the sites won’t generate any more profits. Both companies will be conducting extensive research to understand which advertisements consumers respond to and which ones they do not. Facebook already tracks what consumers are looking at online and creates advertisements on the consumers Facebook page based on the tracker.

The authors of Yahoo News are not confident the new social shopping will take off on Facebook and Twitter. In fact, they are not sure it will happen at all this coming year.

Facebook and Twitter know how to generate followers and friends, so why can't they also generate buyers?