Deloitte on Social Commerce

Every year, since 1985, Deloitte publishes an Annual Holiday Survey gauging the expectations of 10,000 US consumers about the year-end holidays, the economic climate and related spending and purchase patterns.  This year, in 2009, some interesting findings related to social commerce.

Top takeout: Social shopping is on the rise, and retailers are right to focus on offering social media tools to help customers shop online.

• 22% of all consumers will do their primary gift shopping online this year.
• Consumers are adopting social media relatively fast, with 17% of all shoppers planning to use social media—Facebook, MySpace and other such online gathering and communication places—when they shop for gifts.
• 60% will use social media sites to find discounts
• 53% will use social media sites to research gift ideas
• 52% will use social media sites to check wish lists
• 19%—plan to use their mobile devices for shopping this year. 25% of those users expect to make a holiday purchase with their phones.
  • 55% will use their devices to find store locations
  • 45% to research prices
  • 40% to find product information
  • 32% to get discounts and coupons
  • 31% to read reviews.
• 39% of consumers say they often read consumer-generated reviews of stores or products online
• 25% say they will likely purchase a product this holiday season based on an online recommendation.
• 34% say online consumer reviews and ratings influence their buying decisions more than advertising.