Fewer than 1 in 5 adults (18%) have ever purchased something directly on a social media site using features such as a social buy button, according to a new survey from SUMO Heavy. Social media instead has much more of an impact as a vehicle of awareness and as an influencer of purchases.
In this latest survey almost half (48%) of respondents reported having ever purchased a product or service because they first discovered it through social media, with that being up from 42% in a similar survey conducted in 2016. Social media as a vehicle of awareness seems particularly relevant to youth, most of whom say they regularly discover products through social media.
Meanwhile, close to 6 in 10 respondents (58%) to the SUMO Heavy survey said that a social media platform had influenced their purchasing decisions, up from 45% in 2016.
Currently the main impediments to making purchases through social media don’t relate to familiarity, but instead to security (71%), privacy (67%) and legitimacy (64%) concerns. Read the rest at Marketing Charts.
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