Online reviews and social media have become important factors in the modern shopping process - but what are the key sources which influence purchase decisions?
To find out, Influenster recently conducted a survey of more than 11,200 women across the US to find out which information sources are predominantly used by female shoppers when they seek to make a purchase.
Their findings certainly underline the importance of online platforms, with both online reviews and social media standing out as the key sources of product insight.
- Product reviews, social media top word-of-mouth as most relied upon sources for shopping decisions
- Instagram is the most influential social media platform in the shopping process
- Mobile phones (59%) are used most often by women to seek out product reviews online, followed by laptops/desktops (33%) and tablets (8%)
There are some interesting data points in here - it's worth having a scan through to get a better understanding of the key influencing factors, and how both product reviews and social media activity can influence the purchase process.