Social media networks are big traffic drivers and when it comes to dominating the referral market no website is bigger than Facebook. While the world’s largest social network might drive 85.8% of online shopping sessions, Pinterest and its 11.3% referral traffic brings in the bigger spenders.
A new study by RichRelevance examined 700 million “shopping sessions” and found that shoppers who enter an online commerce portal from Facebook stay on the website in question longer and return to the online retail site more regularly. Facebook referrals average 7 pages per session while the study found Pinterest referrals check out only 4 pages and Twitter users stick around for just 3 session views.
The study also found that Facebook customers convert into sales 2.63% of the time while Pinterest customers buy .93% of the time and Twitter customers convert higher at 1.09%.
According to RichRelevance much of Facebook’s success appears to be from “Sponsored Stories” ads which tend to drive specific users with possible vested interested in certain brands.
While Facebook may drive more traffic and create more sales the study found that Pinterest customers on average spend $168.83, compared to $94.70 at Facebook and just $70.84 at Twitter.
Check out the infographic social spending referral infographic:
