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Astonishing 74% of All Buying Decisions Made by Consumers Are Influenced by Social Networks

Each season has holidays that make people increase their spendings, and majority of consumers rely on the Internet for suggesting gift and shopping ideas. A study of ODM Group, a digital marketing agency, concluded that 74% of all consumers are influenced by the social media and networks as far as purchasing decisions go.

The Social Media

Certain social media networks like Twitter and Facebook gave their permission for marketing of retail brands to a broader audience. Such social media platforms allow consumers to easily access any brand, and with this there is also these platforms guide the buyers easier toward their decisions and purchases.

For example, Twitter shows that out of all consumers, 53% mention brands, companies and products when they tweet. 43% of them are serious when it comes to paying for a certain service or product and they follow through with their purchasing plans.

When it comes to talking about services and products and encouraging consumers to do this, Facebook is the most popular with 86%, then Twitter with 65%, reviews of products and blogs are at 55%, and lastly there are the videos with percentage of 50%. You don’t need to just be present on those platforms, but you also need to follow closely where and how your service or brand is mentioned.

Also, we must not forget about Instagram and its popularity regarding influence over potential buyers. This social network shows off with over 500 million active users per month! Back in 2017, the engagement rate of the users was 70% higher compared to the one of Facebook. It was winning over Twitter too, with 669% greater rank. With the ‘story’ feature, sharing and promoting products and services became amazingly popular. Last year, nearly 400 million people shared their stories on Instagram. That is mindblowing fact right there and is a win-win method for advertising products and businesses.

The Importance of Consumers’ Insights

When it comes to listening, every successful business relies on the insights by consumers; summing up 80% of all merchandise and sales decisions that are made. The ODM Group believed that by the year 2014, an astonishing 53% of all retail sales will be made based on Internet research and reviewed products. This only showed the great impact the web has on buyers worldwide.

Also, Sprout Social concluded the same numbers; 74% of buyers confirm their purchase decisions based on social media presence. The crucial component of the marketing strategies of organisations is fully in social media. Of course, this doesn’t apply only to B2C businesses, but also to B2B.

The Powerful Effect of Social Influencers’ Reviews

Social influencers are people who are “small celebrities” on social media; they have quite a lot of followers on their social media profiles. When so many people see the posts of these influencers on daily basis, they are seeing products promotions and businesses. It doesn’t matter whether the posts of the influencers are sponsored – the effect this has on the buyers is outstanding.

Let’s say the influencer posts a picture of the new jeans, on Instagram. The caption says how good they look, how comfortable they are, etc, so the focus of the audience is fully on that product they see. Again, stats confirm this; 45% of all consumers worldwide answered that reviews, feedback, and comments are the greatest factors that influence the shopping decisions, as shown in a 2016 survey. Why is it so easy for us to make a purchase based on social media? Simple: the influencers always tag their products or the stores they went in, so we as consumers can easily access that same product.

The Reviews of Family And Friends Also Play a Huge Role

Basically, social media connects us to everyone we know, even relatives or friends we see rarely. And everything we share on our profiles is a promotion of something, for example a great new product or service we found. It is incredible, even 80% og buyers purchase the same product after they see it recommended by a relative or friend. This makes total sense! Who would you trust the most for a review; your best friend and cousins, or a total stranger?

A Proof That Social Media Influences Almost Every Consumer Worldwide

Additionally, there are some facts and stats regarding consumerism and its connection to social media:

  • Social media will make consumers 71% more probable to be active shoppers
  • 81% of all decisions by consumers are based on the posts of their friends on social media
  • Of all social referrals, Facebook holds 50%, and it ties up 64% of the full total revenue
  • Millennials are 1.6 times more probable to use social media for discovering new services and products
  • 31% of buyers claim to use social media for purchasing new items
  • Even starngers’ opinions matter! 84% of millennials claim to rely on social media and reviews by strangers when it comes to buying
  • Back in 2015, for both online and offline shopping, Facebook ahd influence on 52% of all buyers
  • Consumers are 6 times more probable to purchase something if the company’s social media published pictures of the product on their page

Social Media Has the Greatest Impact on Millennials and Their Shopping

It seems that most brands spend a lot of time, energy and funds to appeal to the millennials. But why? The answer is simple: millennials spend all of their time on social media and that is the ultimate best place to promote your products and services.

72% of millennials stated that they purchase beauty and fashion items solely on the basis of Instagram posts! Also, they rely heavily on the recommendations by their peers, also on social media. The numbers say that 71% of people are more likely to buy a product online if that is first recommended by their friends on social media. This is linked to the fact that millennials don’t trust traditional advertising methods, and trust their peers more.

Here we mention the influencers again; for example, we have clothes and shoes as products. So, 5% of influencers offer their recommendations of such products, and those 5% took up 45% of all social influence! The influencers gained their trust with their followers simply because they know quite a lot for specific niches and products.

The influencers are starting all trends. Their knowledge of fashion and beauty items and reviewing the same is unequalled. Especially millennials-influencers; they claim what is cool and what is a definite no-no, so they do now what fashion magazines did in the past. 

How to reach millennials? Well, the brands’ primary focus must be the recommendations and referrals. In other words, using social media for generating traffic is the key factor.

This Is the Peak Time of Social Media Shopping

Nowadays, social media is considered a sales platform. Almost 25% of all business owners sell their products through Facebook mostly, and overall, 40% depend on social media to increase the number of sales. Consumers were asked, and 30% claimed they would certainly buy a product through Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, or Twitter.

The major breakthrough came with the feature Instagram shopping, which was launched and introduced in 2018. This made brands tag 5 products in one post, so whenever people clicked on those tags, they would see detailed info for that specific product. Usually this is image, price, description and similar information. What’s even better is that the consumers also get a direct link to the website of the company, if they decide to complete the purchase.

Snapchat Got Points With the AR Shoppable Experience

Snapchat had great success when it introduced the Lens Studio back in 2017. They truly committed to the AR shoppable experience. Among the features included there were Video, Website, as well as Install directly to the AR lens.

The Video feature made users view how-to videos by a simple click that brought them the content. The Install feature is a guide for all AR users on how to install the app and open it. And, the Website feature made it possible for the user to go directly on the product page. The very moment a user entered the website of a company, the potential for further purchasing only got better. Users could also “try on” products by using the Lens, and this only confirmed how enjoyable are the shoppable AR features.

As we see, social media platforms are without a doubt sales platforms, as of lately. The success of online sales is simply in the interfaces that allow purchasing, the right features, the influencers and millennials, and of course the easy access of the products and their pages.

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