eMarketer: Social media doesn't help e-commerce much

E-commerce traffic and sales generated by social networks are very low

Retailers use a plethora of community and social media tools to maintain their brand and target audience, but they may not help increase orders.

According to data from the e-tailing group in the first quarter of 2014, 94% of US omnichannel retailers have Facebook, and 81% have a "like" button on product pages, allowing consumers to share content they are interested in. In addition, 81% of respondents use Pinterest, and a similar proportion of respondents manage and tweet on Twitter.

But despite these efforts, the study found that social networks play a minimal role in driving traffic to e-commerce sites. More than a quarter of omnichannel retailers said less than 1% of their traffic comes from social sites, the highest share among respondents to the survey.

Because social media plays a small role in driving e-commerce traffic, the channel’s role in driving sales is even more limited, with 43% of U.S. omnichannel retailers polled saying that less than 1% of shoppers who came to their e-commerce site from a social networking site made a purchase while browsing the site.

Data from Custora shows a similar trend. In the first quarter of 2014, e-commerce orders in the United States generated by social channels accounted for only 1%, the lowest proportion.