Social media-engaged shoppers spend more on purchases

Dive Brief:

A shopper who engages with a retailer through social media is likely to spend 19% more than the average consumer, although that finding comes as consumer social media engagement with retailers has slipped about 2% across the sector, according to data from social media analytics firm Shareablee, reported by Chain Store Age.
Among brands, FashionNova topped rankings with more than 100 million total engagement actions within the first nine months this year. Also among the most engaged-with brands were Victoria’s Secret at 78 million and Urban Outfitters at 48 million, according to the report.
Sephora vastly outpaced other big-box and department store retailers, with about 17.5 million actions across multiple platforms. Ulta Beauty and Nordstrom were the next closest, with 4.8 million and 2.7 million respectively.

Dive Insight:

Shareablee measures the social media activity of more than 2 billion users worldwide. Overall, the future looks bright for retailers that are actively engaging shoppers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the like.

Not only are active social media users likely to spend more than other consumers if they engage with a brand online, but Shareablee estimates that number to be as much as 51% more over a lifetime. Even in a year when overall social media engagement with retailers appears to have slightly declined, the retail sector experienced a 46% increase in social-influenced clicks.

The overall sector decline in engagement might sound troubling, and it certainly is a stat that retailers and brands want to keep a close eye on. Facebook engagement alone reportedly declined about 15% this year, though another recent report from eMarketer suggested Facebook leads other social media platforms in last-click social commerce by a wide margin.

Also, it is worth noting that the period measured was from January through September of this year — after the holiday season of 2016 had just wrapped up and before this year’s holiday rush began. The next eight weeks or so could be a different story.