Cellular Shopping

Has Twitter changed your life as a shopper? How about Facebook? Mobile phones?

While Twitter, Facebook and mobile phones may be changing people’s lives in many ways, their effect on the shopping experience remains relatively underdeveloped, according to the latest Reveries.com survey.

We started by asking how readers felt about Twitter and Facebook on a personal level, and found generally warmer sentiments toward Facebook than Twitter. While just 26 percent said they either loved (nine percent) or liked (17 percent) Twitter, 69 percent said they either loved (21 percent) or liked (48 percent) Facebook.

Although Twitter does have its fans, most readers either don’t understand what Twitter is all about, or think it is a waste of time. With Facebook, however, most have a very clear idea of its purpose — to connect with family and friends.

As one reader commented: “Facebook is like going to my neighborhood bar. I know just about everyone and I have a good time. Twitter is like going to the Minneapolis airport men’s bathroom. I don’t know anyone, and there’s lots of unsavory activity going on.”

This outlook was reflected in frequency-of-use. Sixty percent of readers said they used Twitter either only rarely (25 percent) or never (35 percent). However, 68 percent said they used Facebook either daily (39 percent) or weekly (29 percent). Eight percent said they used it hourly.

When it comes to using either Twitter or Facebook while shopping, the reaction was unambiguous: A whopping 94 percent said they had never used Twitter while shopping and 95 percent said they had never used Facebook in a store.

So, by the slimmest of margins, more people said they had used Twitter than Facebook while shopping. Could it be that the relatively unsettled view of Twitter means it has more potential for development as a shopping tool? We all know that Facebook is for family and friends, but what about Twitter? Perhaps shopper-marketing opportunities lurk within.

Opinions are split with respect to advertising on both Twitter and Facebook. On Twitter, 27 percent said they would feel either okay (21 percent), good (three percent) or great (three percent) about ads, while 28 percent said they would be unhappy and 27 percent said it would depend.

For Facebook, 48 percent said they were neutral about ads, with 25 percent saying they didn’t like seeing ads and 13 percent saying it would depend. Ten percent said they had no opinion and five percent actually said they loved or liked seeing ads on Facebook.

The situation is far different with mobile phones with respect to both shopping and ads: Seventy-one percent said they owned a “smart” phone and 78 percent said they had used their phones while shopping.

In most cases (72 percent) readers said they used their phones to consult with family and friends — if only to double-check shopping lists. However, 59 percent said they had used phones to research prices/information, 17 percent to download coupons and 14 percent for customer service support.

When it came to ads on mobile phones, however, a resounding 70 percent said they would be unhappy about that, with a few readers noting they would be angry to pay for bandwidth used to deliver any ads.

Finally we asked, on an open-ended basis, which brands or retailers were doing the most to improve the shopping experience — and how — via Twitter, Facebook and mobile phones.

Various brands and retailers received mentions — Dell, Zappos, Starbucks, Target and Whole Foods, for instance. But nobody explained exactly how any of them were improving the shopping experience. Indeed, the overwhelming majority said they had no idea who is doing a good job at it.

This would seem to suggest plenty of upside opportunity, especially when one considers that many of us are already using Facebook and Twitter on our mobile phones. Why not while shopping?

Survey results:
http://www.hubmagazine.com/survey/tweetail