Social media influences Xmas spending

Some 28 per cent of US consumers claim social media has influenced their Christmas shopping decisions this year, according to digital analyst comScore.

Wednesday, 9 December 2009

The research, which covers the period between December 4th and 7th 2009, indicates that 13 per cent of respondents read a consumer product review on a social media portal that had an affect on their festive purchasing.

Some 11 per cent suggested that an expert product review influenced what they bought, while seven per cent revealed they have followed a fan page on Facebook to take advantage of deals on offer.

Microblogging website Twitter has also had an impact on this year's Christmas shopping trends, with five per cent of respondents saying they have followed a company on the service in order to get their hands on special offers.

Figures from comScore also indicate that e-commerce spending is up year on year.

The first 36 days of the November to December 2009 holiday season has seen nearly $16 billion (£9.81 billion) spent online - a three per cent increase on the same period in 2008.

Meanwhile, the week ending December 6th saw $4.6 billion spent on the web, which was a larger figure than any individual spending week last year.

In the UK, it has been predicted that Monday December 7th will have been the busiest online shopping day on record once results have been published.

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