With consumers hunting for good deals this holiday season in light of the foundering economy, many have turned their attention to social networking. A survey from Guidance, a company that designs, builds and maintains e-commerce Web sites, says that nearly 30 percent of online shoppers say the best way to find discounts online is through link forwarding, peer comments or social sites. The recent survey, conducted by the market research firm Synovate, polled 1,000 online consumers. Here are some more findings of the report.
* 45 percent of respondents said e-mail is the best way to learn about deals, followed by friends forwarding a link to the product (16.5 percent), messages from retailers on their own Web sites (16 percent), banner ads (10 percent), other shoppers’ comments on the retail site via product reviews or other feedback mechanisms (9 percent), and social networking sites (3 percent);
* respondents aged 18-24 were most likely to find information about bargains from peers rather than retailers, with 39 percent choosing one of the three peer-centric answers (links from friends, another shopper’s comments or friends via a social site) vs. 29 percent of the overall population;
* shoppers in the Northeast were more likely to get their bargain information from peers than online shoppers in the Midwest (33 percent vs. 24 percent);
* respondents with children are six times more likely to find out about bargains via a social site than those without children (6 percent vs. 1.3 percent);
* 12.5 percent of females said they find their bargains from banner ads, compared with 7 percent of men; and
* 22 percent of the respondents aged 18-24 said friends forwarding a link was the best way to find a deal, followed next by the oldest segment polled, 65-plus (18 percent).
For more information, go to www.guidance.com.
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Bargain Shoppers Turn to Social Networking
With consumers hunting for good deals this holiday season in light of the foundering economy, many have turned their attention to social networking. A survey from Guidance, a company that designs, builds and maintains e-commerce Web sites, says that nearly 30 percent of online shoppers say the best way to find discounts online is through link forwarding, peer comments or social sites. The recent survey, conducted by the market research firm Synovate, polled 1,000 online consumers. Here are some more findings of the report.
* 45 percent of respondents said e-mail is the best way to learn about deals, followed by friends forwarding a link to the product (16.5 percent), messages from retailers on their own Web sites (16 percent), banner ads (10 percent), other shoppers’ comments on the retail site via product reviews or other feedback mechanisms (9 percent), and social networking sites (3 percent);
* respondents aged 18-24 were most likely to find information about bargains from peers rather than retailers, with 39 percent choosing one of the three peer-centric answers (links from friends, another shopper’s comments or friends via a social site) vs. 29 percent of the overall population;
* shoppers in the Northeast were more likely to get their bargain information from peers than online shoppers in the Midwest (33 percent vs. 24 percent);
* respondents with children are six times more likely to find out about bargains via a social site than those without children (6 percent vs. 1.3 percent);
* 12.5 percent of females said they find their bargains from banner ads, compared with 7 percent of men; and
* 22 percent of the respondents aged 18-24 said friends forwarding a link was the best way to find a deal, followed next by the oldest segment polled, 65-plus (18 percent).
For more information, go to www.guidance.com.