In the words of Bob Dylan, “The Times They Are a-Changin.’” The direct selling industry has faced myriad challenges just in the last decade. How people shop for products, how they earn extra money, and how they communicate have all changed rapidly, deeply affecting the industry’s place in consumers’ lives.
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Forrester made some noise recently with new research around social media and online transactions. The gist of it is that social media and ecommerce don’t mix as well as other touchpoints when it comes to driving online sales. Forrester notes in the chart below that less than 1 percent of the online transactions they tracked could be traced to a social media post. This is a little distressing for retailers with large marketing investments in social. The research suggests that social is usually not the first touchpoint people have before going to a company’s online store to make a purchase. Sure, social is still a fantastic way to build awareness, service customers and build meaningful dialogue – all worthy endeavors for any brand, but as a means to drive sales online – not so much, yet.
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