Is Social Media A Waste Of Time For E-Commerce? [Black Friday Report]

Black Friday is the Super Bowl of shopping.  A strong Black Friday for a retailer can turn a previously poor performing year into a profitable one.

Many retailers, both traditional and E-Commerce prepare months in advance, laying out detailed marketing plans to make the most of this “home stretch”, which hopefully will end the year on a high note.

Social Media is almost always front and center when it comes to an online marketing strategy.  It has to be, it's the darling of media these days and you're a fool if you ignore it.  At least that's what they tell you.  Now I'm a little biased as I'm a search marketing kind of guy.  I personally don't think search marketing can be beat when it comes to matching a specific offer to a specific user….because that's what they asked for, or at least typed into the search box.

social media does not drive online sales for retailers

It's all about intent.  When someone searches via search engine, their intent is to find something specific.  That may be information, and answer to a question, or a specific product.  It's a perfect match.  When it comes to Social Media, you're taking more of a round about way of getting your message across.  Social Media is definitely a soft sell, if that.

So the Black Friday shopping numbers have come out, at least the online numbers, and they're interesting.  These numbers come courtesy of IBM, and seem to show that Social Media, namely Twitter and Facebook, do exactly bunk when it comes to driving online sales.  Is Social Media a waste?  Of course not, but these are sobering facts to say the least.  The one notable is that mobile use is on the rise, though it'll be awhile before it overtakes desktops and laptops when it comes to online sales.

– A whopping 0.68% of online sales came via a Facebook referral, down from 1% last year.  This explains why most businesses have shuttered their Facebook E-Commerce stores.

– Online sales from Twitter accounted for a ………0.00% of online sales, down from 0.02% a year ago.  This confirms my theory that heavy Twitter users don't have jobs and still live at home with their parents.

– Mobile devices (includes smartphones and tablets) accounted for 16% of sales. That's up from 10% last year.  Mobile devices also accounted for 24% of site traffic.

– The conversion rate of online shoppers was at 4.58%, down from 9% a year ago.

 

 

 

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Gary

CEO at 3Bug Media
Gary Shouldis is the founder of 3Bug Media, a web marketing company that helps businesses create 360 Marketing Strategies to dominate their market. His blog is read by over 20 thousand small business owners a month and has been featured in the N.Y. Times Small Business, Business Insider and Yahoo Small Business.
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