By Kat Matfield
Consumers love to take their Facebook friends shopping with them, but retailers must be careful not to intrude too far into shopper's social circles.
The results of a new survey by JWT Intelligence show that consumers are in two minds about Facebook shopping recommendations on retail sites (product/service recommendations personalised using information from Facebook). On one hand, seeing what products and services friends like offers unrivalled social validation that helps consumers navigate through an excess of choice. It helps retailers too, by removing the choice paralysis standing in the way of conversion. Around 4 out of 10 UK consumers rate this kind of recommendation as helpful in some way and a majority of the key 20-33 year-old demographic are fans.
There's a flip-side, however. Overly intrusive use of these recommendations will garner a negative response; around half of consumers have had this response at one time or another. Again, the responses of younger generations show them to be happier with the integration of social throughout their web experience.
Remember: these responses are from the same group of people as responded with cautious approval above. Consumers find as much to dislike in these recommendations as they like.
The crucial chart for understanding this contradictory response, and helping you decide where and how to use Facebook recommendations, is this:
If you're planning to integrate Facebook with your ecommerce site to provide your visitors with helpful, conversion-boosting recommendations, make sure you're providing high quality recommendations.
The stakes are high: make a visitor feel like you've invaded their privacy and they're far more likely to leave your site than they are to convert. Get it right, and your conversion rates will get a healthy boost: around 18%, according to our analysis (read more about how different social shopping tools affect conversion).
There isn't space in this post to dig into all the factors that are needed to make 'good' recommendations to your visitors. But with visibility on billions of pounds of social-commerce-enabled purchases across Europe, we're in a good position to help you work it out. Socialised shopping recommendations are just one of the tools that can kick your conversion up a gear: take a look at Reevoo Spark to find out more.
Source: original data from the highly useful JWT Intelligence Social Commerce report.