Facebook Drives More Traffic to Retail, But Pinterest Users Spend More - Study

While Facebook dominates in socially-driven shopping, Pinterest is driving the highest average spending per online shopping session.

RichRelevance, a specialist in dynamic e-commerce personalization for the world’s largest retailers, analyzed nearly 700 million shopping sessions to benchmark the performance of Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest as drivers of traffic to retail sites.

“Every social network promises a new way of connecting consumers with retailers and brands,” stated Diane Kegley, CMO of RichRelevance, of the firm's latest Shopping Insights report. “However, the big take-away from our research is that not all channels in the social space are created equal.” 

Key findings include:

• Facebook dominates as a source of traffic: Shoppers who click-through account for the overwhelming majority of shopping sessions at nearly 86% (85.8%), followed by Pinterest (11.3%) and Twitter (2.9%). 

• Shoppers who started at Facebook browse more and buy more often — nearly seven pages per visit vs. nearly three for Twitter and just over four from Pinterest and purchase somewhat more frequently (conversion rates of 2.63%) than Pinterest (.93%) or Twitter (1.09%). 

• Pinterest is driving more revenue per session - nearly double that of other social channels: While shoppers who come to retail sites from Facebook and Twitter purchase more often, Pinterest users spend dramatically more than either ($168.83 average order value vs. $94.70 for Facebook and $70.84 for Twitter).

“As retailers and brands continue to sort out how to take advantage of social networks, this infographic provides great insight into better understanding the nuances of each channel, how they resonate with consumers and how marketers can take advantage of each in their own unique way,” adds Kegley.

RichRelevance delivers more than 850 million product recommendations daily for consumers of Walmart, Sears, Target, Marks & Spencer and John Lewis.

The study is available as a downloadable infographic — click here.