E-Commerce Insights: 7 Ways to Find New Customers Online

7. Finally, you may be able to tap into social networks using a widget developed by ShareThis.com. The widget is easy to install on your site and allows shoppers to share a link to your site through AOL Instant Messenger, e-mail, Facebook, MySpace and others.

More than 70,000 sites now offer the widget. Content sites report up to 2 percent of visitors come through links generated through ShareThis.com by other visitors. Similar data doesn’t exist on e-commerce sites. The widget is quick to install and doesn’t take up much real estate on the page, so just about anything you get is a plus.