Debunking Conventional Wisdom in Retail

4. Social networks will be the mother of all interactive marketing tactics. Six hundred million Facebook users equipped with peer-to-peer sharing could in fact transform a brand's way of selling online or its marketing strategy. But in reality Facebook struggles being a force in e-commerce.

Fifty-eight percent of respondents in the Retail Online Benchmark Recontact Survey, Q2 2010 said they use social networks to keep up with friends and family. Only 13 percent have viewed networking pages set up by retailers, and just 7 percent have added videos and images from a retailer's social networking page to their personal profile or posted a comment to a retailer's page.