The launch of Facebook Marketplace in the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand last week marked another effort by the world’s biggest social network to expand social commerce into some of the biggest e-commerce markets. Today’s chart therefore focuses on US Facebookers to show why Marketplace could be an important step in this process.
It’s now over 30% of Facebookers in the US who turn to social media when they are researching products online. However, it’s a much lower 6% who say that being able to purchase directly via social media would encourage them to buy online. And even among those Facebookers who are most enthusiastic about online commerce – the 25-34s – it’s still only 13% who see the appeal of social commerce.
Marketplace could be a key tool in bridging the gap between research and purchase on social media. Although the platform does not yet support a native transaction system, by acclimatizing users to a social commerce eco-system, the platform could be an important step in convincing Facebookers in these markets of the benefits of social commerce. After all, 8 in 10 US Facebookers say they purchased a product online last month, so there’s a huge opportunity to bring some of these purchases inside social networks.
