New research has revealed that UK retailers who do not offer online recommendations to consumers could be missing out on a staggering £9bn in additional online revenue.
The social commerce and recommendations company nToklo has found that half of the top 101 retailers (according to reported group sales) do not offer their customers recommendations through their website. Also, the vast majority surveyed do not offer consumers the ability to share recommendations through social platforms.
Whilst nearly all respondent retailers have a presence on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, most are not making the best use of social commerce (and are consequently missing out on the potential to increase revenue by up to 27 per cent.) 76 per cent of respondents, for example, do not have their own social community functions on their websites despite many requiring their customers to sign-in to the website to make a purchase. Consumers are looking for a more social and personal shopping experience and are seeking out more reviews and recommendations from other users. This is a massive growth area that retailers need to exploit, and recent research by Barclays has compounded this fact – click here for more details.
The message to retailers is simple: be more social!