Social Media drives online sales

Interesting report from Hitwise this week. In their latest report they say that social networking sites accounted for 11.6% of all UK Internet visits during September.

As social networking becomes an ever popular past time it is driving more and more traffic to internet shopping sites. This is plainly being felt by larger retailers as Marks and Spencers unveils its new social media integrated Christmas marketing campaign this week

Not surprisingly 55% of clicks come via Facebook. with 17% coming via YouTube and only 2.5% from Twitter. Also not surprisingly 23% of the social media traffic goes to music/video/games retailers. However 9% of visits are to clothing websites and 6.5% to toy/hobby shops

As people meet, talk and discuss via social networks more and more this is going to influence their shopping habits, and since any recommended website is only a click away then it makes sense that sales will follow

As a soft toy wholesaler we use Twitter a lot to network with businesses with similar interests. We don't use it as a sales tool but more as a discussion forum. However as a wholesaler we are one step away from consumers so it will be interesting to see if our retail customers see increased sales from social media this year.

There is no doubt that by Xmas 2011 social media will definitely be a significant factor in a successful festive season. Hands up anyone who hasn't thought about having their business represented on social media somewhere......