Twitter and Your Holiday Shopping Habits: Study

In the past years, social media has been used widely by companies to encourage people to shop more and enjoy the convenience of browsing for items and having these delivered right to their doorstep at very reasonable rates. Twitter has been used by both marketers and shoppers with very good results. Especially now that Christmas is approaching, marketing groups are looking for ways to boost the Twitter experience by using different approaches and features on social media. DB5, a research firm, surveyed the influence of Twitter on how shoppers get items by observing 2,000 holiday shoppers in the United States. Some of the discoveries include early postings by companies of items to buy to increase anticipation of the holiday season. 30% of Twitter users actually tweet about early shopping starting October. 55% begin discussing items to buy while 64% actually started buying products on social media. The survey also revealed that social media helped people decide where to shop and what to purchase. People are also more likely to share their shopping ideas and experience with others on social media. 57% actually use Twitter to determine which stores they are going to purchase items from and 62% reveal what they bought recently from stores. Almost half of the participants stated that they prefer taking Twitter with them while shopping instead of their spouse. According to marketers, introducing the products and promos early in the last quarter will bring in more sales and increase interest in their products at the time people actually start buying. Twitter is a big help for brands when it comes to helping people decide where and what to get. Some items sell faster than others like clothes and electronics. Many of the social media users also purchase items using mobile devices and smart phones. Big social media events for shoppers have been arranged such as Cyber Monday.