Social Media is no magic formula that increases sales; according to the new report published by Forrester and GSI Commerce along with the digital agency True Action, which offers a vision of the behavior of online consumers. The study focused on the analysis of tens of thousands of orders and has come to the conclusion that, in spite of technological advances, and the use of more complex marketing techniques, nothing has changed when it comes to convincing users to buy online.

This is the second time that this study of how online marketing techniques have influenced consumers’ behavior has been carried out, without any significant change. Given the study, a large number of purchases take place after there have been several interactions between the company and the customer, hence the importance of working the brand notoriety. In fact, 33% of new customers and 48% of regular customers had previously had some contact with the company.

Paid advertising is still the one that has a higher conversion rate when it comes to attracting new customers, while e-mailing is the most effective technique to get existing customers to repeat their buying action.

Companies showed a high interest in Social Media as a method to get sales, but it really does not work in that sense. The study failed to verify the effectiveness of social marketing and its impact on sales. Advertising on social networks was responsible for less than 1% of transactions. It may be due to the fact that the study period (30 days) is insufficient to determine this index, and it is necessary to extend the period of observation to determine the results more accurately.

Another relevant fact to consider for companies, 30% of consumers went directly to the web to make their purchases, entering directly the url of the online store.Hence the great importance of highlighting the url of the page in all commercial actions of the company, as well as the use of easily rememberable domain names.

In summary, traditional marketing techniques such as e-mailing, SEM and SEO are still the ones that provide a higher index of results when it comes to getting sales; however, social networks are not the most appropriate channel to achieve this goal. Everything has been said, companies must be aware that Social Media fulfills other functions, such as improving online reputation and generating trust towards the brand, determining factors in completing the purchase process.