Survey: Social shopping soars during pandemic

Consumers have been turning to social media to discover and purchase produces much more since the start of COVID-19.

According to a recent survey of members of Bazaarvoice’s Influenster online product review community, 72% of respondents strongly agree or agree that they are more influenced to shop via social media now compared to a year ago pre-pandemic. More than eight in 10 (84%) respondents strongly agree or agree that their time on social media has increased over the past 12 months.

Additionally, in the past 12 months, the top choices among respondents for where to shop are a brand’s website (77%) followed by Instagram (54%). Concurrently, shopping via TikTok (567%), Twitter (300%), and Pinterest (250%) has increased dramatically.

More than half of respondents are “sometimes” influenced to buy a new and “unknown” brand from social, while 73% indicated that they had shopped for a new brand recently from social and 55% said they had opted for a new brand over their go-to-brand.

When asked to identify the top three drivers for why they choose a new brand from social, a leading 50% of respondents said relevance – based on their needs and wants. Product benefits/feature/ingredients closely trailed (49%), followed by price (29%).

Respondents also revealed they would rather purchase beauty products (89% vs. 35%) and health/wellness products (42% vs. 24%) from social media vs. in-store, respectively.