Search and email lag behind social media in ecommerce conversion rates

Although fluctuations were recorded in terms of conversion rates, social media channels topped up consistently email and search referral channels for ecommerce. Thus, during the period under review, the conversion rate for social media was over 3.8%, as compared to e-mail (2.2%) and search channels (1%).

According to businessinsider.in, social media’s instant growth is backed by an alteration in Monetates sample of e-commerce sites for Q3 and Q4 2012. In that time frame, it went from randomly sampling 600 million online shopping sessions, to looking at a sample of more than 7 billion. The sample may have become more weighted toward larger ecommerce companies, or another subset of merchants that rely on social media referrals, the same source reports.

Email, traditionally regarded by ecommerce companies as the primary channel for converting customers, has become less effective due to the numbness of users towards the bundle of promotions and daily deal offerings that are downloaded in their inboxes. This is also valid for email apps. Googles Gmail, to name one, has become more proactive in filtering out those types of messages from a persons primary inbox.

On the other hand, social media recommends purchases and encourages user-specific product discussions. Pinterest has become a portal that is being used by millions of shoppers in order to discover new products and inform their buying decisions.