Social networks are driving more traffic to ecommerce sites, but they still lag behind traditional channels like search and email in conversions and average order value. According to Monetate, an online marketing provider that analyzes more than 100 million online shopping experiences, email was the leader in conversions to sales in the second quarter of this year, with 4.25 percent, ahead of search at 2.49 percent and social at 0.59 percent. When you look at average order value, search comes out on top with $ 90.40, followed by email $ 82.72 with social trailing with $ 64.19. These numbers come from Monetate’s second quarter ecommerce report.
Monetate, which serves more than 100 top commerce sites, reported in its first quarter study earlier this year that social traffic to ecommerce sites has increased by 77 percent in the past year. The company found that 73.19 percent of Facebook visitors view at least one product detail page, but they also don’t stick around on a site, with 45.67 percent leaving after viewing just one page. By comparison, 56.30 percent of visitors coming in from Google search view a product page, but just 25.69 percent leave after viewing one page.
The numbers are a reminder that social is still not up to par with other channels in driving actual sales and revenue. Networks like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest can be good for building a relationship with consumers and prompting conversations around products. But, online retailers can’t expect that in-bound traffic from social networks to pay off in the same way as search and email.
Monetate Director of Corporate Communications Marifran Manzo-Ritchie told me that social is still new but many retailers have been measuring it by referral traffic. She said a fuller view of the effectiveness of social shows it’s still maturing as a commerce tool.
“Ecommerce providers are still using email and search because those methods are proven to work and they’re not going away. That being said, with the hype around social, it can be very tempting for an ecommence marketer to launch a full-scale ad campaign on social media, thinking that traffic = conversions. But with this kind of data now available, a marketer might think twice before betting the farm on social,” said Manzo-Ritchie.