Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Dive Brief:Retailers’ social media activity is far better than their websites or search engines at getting shoppers to convert or try new things, according to a report from digital marketing vendor Epsilon Data Management LLC. 

For its “Digital Shopping Tool Impact Study 2015,” Epsilon looked at what prompted shoppers to try new brands and products, and the top influencers were:

-  retailers’ social media usage (29%)

-  brands’ social media usage (28%)

-  printable coupons (23%),

-  daily deal sites (22%), and friends’ social media posts (21%).

While consumers may use a retailer’s site more often, social media, apps, and even coupons are more likely to influence their shopping and decision-making in 10 areas of the shopping process, including what store they visit and their amount of unplanned purchases. The top five digital tools, according the report, are retailers’ social network posts and pages (35%), price comparison sites (35%), shopping apps (34%), brands’ social network posts and pages (33%), product reviews (33%), printable coupons (32%). ...

Are you wondering how consumers are using social media?

Would you like some insights to help your business better understand people’s social habits?

In this article, I examine a report published by Edison Research focused on people’s latest social habits.

These findings provide useful insights about consumer behavior and how your business can respond.

Here are 9 of the most interesting findings from the study....