Despite all the hype about the potential for social media to influence consumer purchase decisions, the traditional paper catalog influenced more holiday shoppers than Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest both online and in-store.
Research by Baynote, a company that provides personalized customer experience technology, should be a reality check for retailers that have gone after the shiny new technologies like social media and mobile apps over the last 12-18 months.
By no means does Baynote’s research mean that social media should be ignored. But what it does mean is more traditional channels, like the old-school paper catalog, should not be forgotten. Paper catalogs influenced 82 percent more in-store purchases and 43 percent more online purchases than Facebook, according to Baynote. And social platforms were most influential to consumers between the ages of 25 and 34, while paper catalogs were most influential among consumers 45 years and older.
IBM’s Black Friday report found that Twitter made up 0 percent of retail referral traffic and Facebook was just under 1 percent. In part, the issue may be a lack of attribution for social media platforms.
Another interesting finding is that although retail apps gained traction during the holidays, they are still only used by a small amount of shoppers. Twenty three percent of respondents to Baynote’s study made at least one purchase using a mobile app on either their smartphone or tablet. Consumers between the ages of 18 and 44 were most likely to make a purchase using a mobile app and those 45 and older were least likely.
Ad position: web_incontent_pos1
This research, conducted in partnership with the e-tailing group, surveyed 1,000 U.S. online holiday shoppers between Nov. 24 and Dec. 5 to gain insight into behavior and purchase influencers across various retail channels.
Image via Shutterstock
More in Marketing
In the marketing world, anime is following in the footsteps of gaming
As marketers look to take advantage of anime’s entry into the zeitgeist, they might be wise to observe the parallels between the evolution of anime as a marketing channel and the ways brands have learned to better leverage gaming in recent years.
With the introduction of video ads and e-commerce, Roblox looks to attain platform status
Roblox is expanding into more areas than just ads in 2024. Much like platforms such as Amazon and Facebook have transcended their origins to evolve from their origins as online marketplaces and social media channels, Roblox is in the midst of a transformation into a platform for all elements of users’ virtual lives.
PepsiCo wants to remain a ‘driver of culture’ as it turns to influencers and activations amid rebrand
The soda-maker says it can translate cultural relevance into sales volume.
Ad position: web_bfu