With the advent of mobile devices and social media, customers now have a wide diversity of channels and devices with which to complete their online transactions. Because of this, many merchants are updating their ecommerce software to adjust for the new shopping experience. While referrals generated from social media only resulted in $148 million of the $2.29 billion in this year's Cyber Monday sales reported by Adobe, the number of customers drawn in by these methods was up across multiple social networks. 

Twitter generated 24 percent more Cyber Monday traffic in 2013 than it did in 2012, while Pinterest grew by 17 percent and Facebook by 12 percent. Pinterest and Facebook were the two most prominent sources for sales through social media, with IBM reporting that the average order amounted to $92.40 and $97.81, respectively. In addition to attracting higher expenditures, Facebook also drove a 38 percent higher conversion rate than Pinterest. 

Merchants should not neglect the growing role that social media may have on their company, as it ties partially into the growing role of mobile devices as purchasing tools. Reaching consumers across all channels will be a key business strategy throughout the coming years. 

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, December 5th, 2013 at 4:02 am .