Women Shoppers Heavily Influenced By Social Media
By Anna Johnson on May 31st, 2010Research by iVillage and SheSpeaks indicates women are heavily influenced by social media when it comes to shopping.
The vast majority (77 percent) of women are more likely to look for a product in-store after reading a review about it on an online community forum or message board and 67 percent of women are more likely to make an in-store purchase after reading about it on a community forum or message board.
The findings of iVillage, an online community for women and SheSpeaks, a social media platform that ‘creates and operates consumer insights and influencer communities’ show that Internet marketers able to reach women through social media are well-placed to influence their purchases.
Commenting on the research – which involved surveying 1,581 U.S. women randomly chosen from the SheSpeaks panel – Jodi Kahn, Executive Vice President, iVillage said:
“For brand marketers and retailers alike, the insights are clear – finding the right balance of trusted content with community advice is the best way to reach women along the path to purchase.”
Among the key findings of the iVillage / SheSpeaks’ research are the following:
- When it comes to prompting purchases among women, the most influential channels are online coupons (68 percent), online product reviews by consumers (61 percent), emails from companies or brands (45 percent) and online articles (41 percent). Becoming a ‘friend’, ‘fan’ or ‘follower’ of brands and retailers online via Facebook and Twitter are much less influential (19 percent).
“If brands can motivate trusted customer recommendations and couple them with a ‘call to action’ such as a coupon, it’s a powerful one-two punch that drives sales and advocacy,” said Aliza Freud, CEO of SheSpeaks.
- Peer recommendations about products on message boards have a substantial influence on influencing women’s shopping behavior. Peer group recommendations on message boards influence women to look for products in-store, (77 percent of women), feel more favorable towards products while shopping (74 percent), be more likely to choose a brand or product over others (70 percent), and be more inclined to purchase the product in the store (67 percent).
- Consumer reviews on shopping sites also significantly influence women shoppers, being a top influence for 61 percent of respondents.
- Online articles are a top influence for 35 percent of women. Blogs are a top influence for 33 percent, whilst Facebook and Twitter posts about brands by friends were a top influence for 19 percent of women, and posts from the companies behind the products or brands are a top influence for 11 percent.
Women it seems, aren’t just swayed by their online friends’ and peers’ opinions though. Good old fashioned savings are still a motivator when it comes to buying grocery items. Indeed, coupons and other consumers’ opinions – from both online and offline sources – are top influencers of purchase decisions when it comes to purchases in the food/beverage, health/beauty and household product categories.
- For grocery items, online coupons are the most influential (cited by 68 percent of women), followed by store coupons (66 percent), consumer reviews on shopping sites (61 percent) and online recommendations from friends (59 percent).
