We’ve all been through situations where seemingly simple purchasing choices become confusing and overwhelming. The issue at hand is not indecisiveness but instead the reality of the new digital marketplace which has flooded consumers with countless new choices. For instance, think about how many times you’ve gone shopping for a laptop and felt inundated with products, brands, and models as you’ve browsed across different retail sites. As a retailer, you want to convert your site visitors into buyers but that can be a real challenge if your customers feel overwhelmed and frustrated when they look for products on your site.

One concept to keep in mind as you think about keeping your visitors in your digital sales funnel is how social interaction can help – purchasing decisions are heavily influenced by recommendations from real people who have real feedback on products. Bringing on-site social interaction to your online storefront is paramount in keeping those potential buyers engaged. Tools like Social Login and Ratings & Review Plugin allow users to easily connect their experiences with a particular brand or product back to their social feeds and can play a big part in SEO and in bringing valuable referral traffic to your site.

Letting your customers easily share product reviews on their social networks can make a big difference on sales. In fact, a recent Nielson Social Media Report showed that:

• 60% of people who use 3 or more digital means of research for product purchases learned about a specific brand or retailer from a social networking site.
• 70% of active online adult social networks shop online and 53% of active social networkers follow a brand.

What this information is telling us is that in a cluttered digital marketplace, an e-commerce site will be more effective in reaching its target audience if it provides the information directly to consumers via social networks. By adding social functionality to your retail site, you encourage transparency and allow your customers to become the biggest advocates of the brand.

For more information on how on-site social tools can help your business, check out Gigya’s Social Plugins.

–  John de Oliveira, Business Development