79% of consumers are more likely to shop on social media

An agency previously surveyed 3,373 British shoppers, including 18% of Generation Z, 71% of Generation F , 10% of Generation X and 1% of Baby Boomers .

The survey results found that more than three-quarters (79%) said they are more influenced by shopping on social platforms now than they were a year ago. 64% of people have purchased on Instagram in the past year , followed by Facebook (45%) and TikTok (24%).

Additionally, the number of people who say they “always” use their smartphone to shop increased by 214% , and the number of people who “always” shop from social media increased by 146%.

Ed, Senior Vice President, Bazaarvoice   Hill said the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social commerce has been huge. Over the past year, as consumers have spent more time on social applications, commerce has become a cornerstone function of social platforms.

Consumers today are more likely to see and be influenced by brand ads, user-generated content (UGC) and influencer posts, and businesses and brands that have sensed this opportunity are already seeing success.

Social media plays a key role in encouraging shoppers to try new brands. 70% of people have tried a new brand through social media in the last year , and a further 49% have chosen a new brand due to social media. When asked what encourages them to buy a new brand on social media, 47% said relevance, followed by the product’s benefits, features or ingredients (41%), visual brand content (27%) and price (27%).

However, when shoppers were previously unaware of the brand, they were most likely to be swayed by the product’s benefits, features or ingredients (45%), rather than relevance (43%) and price.

To stand out on these platforms, brands and retailers must distribute content to all the places shoppers find their products. This varies from in-store to search to social , where retailers can start from a product inspiration and discovery perspective by incentivizing consumers to buy their products on social media.

All of these ways to buy, without consumers even having to leave the app. Social commerce is more than just making posts shoppable , retailers need to convert customers from simply shopping online to truly buying online through an engaging and inspiring shopping journey.

As for social platforms, survey data shows that the fastest growing social platform is TikTok (+553%) , and its sales growth rate exceeds that of the more mature Pinterest (+356%), Instagram (+189%) and Facebook (+160%).

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