Why Make Your Customers Shop Alone?

The Case for Real-Time Social Shopping

By John JacksonPresident & CEODecisionStep, Inc.

ecisionStep recently conducted a survey of online shoppers to shed light on thethird-party factors that influence a purchase decision, how they change withdifferent types of purchases, and the importance of real-time communication withtrusted advisors when making a purchase online.

Here is what we found:

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Consumers trust friends, family members and peers more thanadvertising, expert reviews and bloggers;

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Consumers rely on advice from family and friends more as the price or importance of a purchase decision goes up;

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Most online shoppers are interested in seeking real-time advice fromfriends, family, customer support and even other shoppers on a website.

The Importance of Peer Feedback in the Purchase Process

Over the years, retailers have made shopping online more fun, easier and faster.However, in the current recession, consumers are more cautious with their money andmany are putting more consideration into what they buy. While many retailers haveincorporated online ratings and reviews from other consumers to help in the decision-making process, most still lack the technological capability to quickly connect customerswith their friends or other online shoppers directly. Getting that valuable advice from peersremains a time-consuming and inefficient task for most visitors to online retail stores. Ingeneral, shopping online remains a solitary experience, and consumers have been left todevise their own methods for soliciting a friend’s advice, including emailing links, blindlywalking friends through a site over the phone, or even printing out product information andconsulting face to face.This is despite an overwhelming body of data indicating that peers are the most importantinfluencer when making a purchase decision. Last year, former Forrester analyst and pre-eminent thought leader in the social media space, Jeremiah Owyang (now with theAltimeter Group), cited three studies in his well-read blog

, all of which concluded that aperson’s peers were the most trusted source of information about goods and services. Thestudies were: “Groundswell: Living in a World Transformed by Social Technologies,” fromForrester Research, “The Trust Barometer,” from Edelman Public Relations and resultsfrom Canadian research firm Pollara.

In September 2009, DecisionStep conducted a survey of Internet users

to look moreclosely at consumer influencers as they relate to decision-making online. Our findingsconfirm the importance of peers as trusted advisors and provide additional insights in termsof how and when online consumers seek advice.

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hen asked who they trust when looking for advice on buying a product (either online or offline), nearly 94 percent responded by saying they trust friendsand family more than any other source, followed by experts and onlineconsumer reviews (72 and 69 percent, respectively). Those who said thatthey look to companies or advertising were far behind with 15 percent.

Who do you trust when looking for advice in buying a new product(online or offline)? (mark all that apply)