Survey Says: 76% of Marketers Plan to Use Facebook for Social Commerce

Interesting headline survey results published this week from e-commerce conversion experts SeeWhy.

In a social commerce survey of 467 marketers that was conducted in June 2010 and that focused on marketers’ plans to use Facebook as a social commerce tool (social commerce was defined in the survey as “the use of social media to drive ecommerce sales”), the study found…

• 76% of marketers plan to use Facebook for ‘social commerce’ initiatives
• 20% of marketers are unsure whether they will use Facebook for social commerce
• 2% have no plans to leverage Facebook for social commerce.
• 67% plan to use Facebook to drive traffic to their e-commerce sites
• 26% plan to build e-commerce application on Facebook itself
• 44% plan to use Facebook application in place of microsites for product launches and promotions

Whilst SeeWhy have not provided details of their sample (representativity, small or major brands/retailers, sectors, region (we’re assuming US) etc…), meaning it’s difficult to extrapolate findings, it’s nevertheless interesting  to see that such a large proportion of marketers (76%) may be planning to use Facebook as a social commerce tool – for either driving traffic to their e-commerce site (67%) and/or selling directly on Facebook itself (26%).

The other point of note is that Facebook is perhaps shaping up to be final nail in the coffin of the much maligned promotional microsite, 44% of marketers plan to use Facebook in place of such microsites – condemning the latter to the virtual scrapyard in the sky.