Social Media Christmas, Facebook Match

While the shops are busy preparing their Christmas windows and anticipating the Christmas rush, clever consumers have their shopping all wrapped up without even stepping out the door. Online sales of Christmas presents have jumped year on year, with online payment providers such as Pay Pal and Ebay predicting that online retailers will start seeing some serious volume over the coming weeks, with Christmas growth expected to reach 9.3% for Australian retailers. In fact, there are over 10 million savvy Australian consumers that will be conducting their Christmas shopping online this year, saving themselves the time, energy, and patience required to tackle the high street at Christmas, not to mention avoiding the Christmas carols.

However, an area that is set to shake things up even further is the number of sales that can be generated through social media. The area of Social Shopping is the next big test for online retailers. For the first time, Christmas shoppers will be able to generate individualised tips and product recommendations for friends and family through the Facebook platform ‘Facebook’s Match’, which scans a person’s page likes and interests to generate the ideal gift. This idea of social shopping is already in full swing, despite early scepticism from some industry experts. As of January 2011, Facebook traffic to Amazon grew 328% year-over-year while Google referral traffic dropped 2% in the same period, indicating social’s increasing important relative to search, although Google is still the market leader.

Those companies that can harness this unprecedented growth in the online activity of consumers and leverage the exchange of information for commercial benefit are set to have a very merry Christmas.