Social networkers are top shoppers

16th October 2007

Over 95 per cent of frequent social networkers visited shopping sites in August, says digital media measurers comScore.

The results show that 80 per cent of American internet users visited a retail website. Out of these 146,000 online shoppers, 23,000 regularly use social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace.

Websites visited most often by the users were online clothing shops, while others included jewellery, electronic goods, luxury goods and music stores.

"Visitors to social networking sites are more receptive to online advertising for leisure-oriented retail categories," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.

He added that people enjoy talking about their recently purchased products and that sites like Facebook provide opportunities to do so.

Advertising spending on social network sites in the US will double to $900 million (£443 million) this year, with Facebook and MySpace claiming three quarters of the total, according to EMarketer. This figure is estimated to grow by 180 per cent to $2.5 billion by 2011.