Social Influence on Shopping Behavior

A new study was just released by Jupiter and LinkShare regarding the influence of social media on shopping behavior:

http://www.linkshare.com/press/news_jupiterresearch.html

• Social and community sites impact the purchase decisions of 51 percent of online shoppers aged 18-24. This is far beyond any other age group, which averaged less than 26 percent
• More than a third (36 percent) of online shoppers affected by social/community sites said they buy offline even though they use online social/community sites to make their decisions
• 42 percent of online shoppers said consumer product reviews would make social/community sites more useful when researching and buying online; 24 percent of online shoppers said top 10 product lists would make social/community sites more useful when researching and buying online
• 77 percent of online buyers who used store websites when researching their most recent online purchase found them useful. 75 percent of online buyers who used search engines when researching their most recent online purchase found them useful. Yet online shoppers continue to seek out additional product insight, commentary, and promotions elsewhere