Half of Facebook Sellers Expect More Sales This Holiday Season Compared to Last Year

New “F-Commerce Facts” survey from Payvment shows sellers are optimistic about holiday sales

Data also shows sellers continuing their strong adoption of Facebook Ads and increasing their use of Twitter and Pinterest to drive buyers to their Facebook storefronts

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Payvment, the number one Facebook ecommerce platform, today shared results of its second “F-Commerce Facts” survey of over 1,000 sellers on Facebook, the majority of which are small businesses with fewer than 500 Facebook fans. The survey shows that Facebook sellers are optimistic about the 2012 holiday season, with nearly 50 percent of sellers anticipating an increase in sales over last year, while 48 percent plan to run holiday promotions to boost sales.

“With hundreds of thousands of small businesses now selling products on Facebook and many planning significant promotions and discounts for the holidays, Cyber Monday could very well become ‘Facebook Monday’ this year”

“With hundreds of thousands of small businesses now selling products on Facebook and many planning significant promotions and discounts for the holidays, Cyber Monday could very well become ‘Facebook Monday’ this year,” said Jim Stoneham, CEO of Payvment. “The data also shows that Facebook sellers are continuing to invest in promoting their storefronts via Facebook Ads, as well as offering deals and promotions and aggressively marketing their stores via other social channels such as Twitter and Pinterest.”

Key conclusions from the survey include:

1. Facebook sellers are optimistic about the upcoming holiday season.

Facebook sellers are optimistic about the upcoming holiday season, with 49 percent anticipating that their holiday sales will increase from last year, and just 13 percent expecting a decline in sales.

As “Facebook Monday” approaches, sellers are also planning a variety of promotions to boost sales. Nearly half of respondents (48 percent) are planning to run some sort of promotion; of those, 34 percent plan to offer free shipping, 23 percent plan to offer up to a 10 percent price discount, and 18 percent plan to offer a discount of up to 20 percent.

Shoppers can also expect larger discounts from more established Facebook sellers. While free shipping is the most commonly cited deal type sellers plan to offer over the holidays, sellers with more than 500 fans are most likely to offer a price discount of 11-20 percent.

The data also shows that Facebook’s recent IPO and stock price woes have done little to dampen the holiday spirit. Nearly 50 percent of Facebook sellers say that their perception of Facebook as a platform for business has not changed since the company went public earlier this year, and 20 percent of respondents say they are actually more confident in the company following the IPO. Just 17 percent say the IPO and subsequent challenges have made them view Facebook less positively.

2. Facebook Ads continue to enjoy strong adoption and favorability.

Facebook Ads continue to enjoy high favorability among Facebook sellers who have used them. 42 percent of respondents report having used Facebook Ads (up from 38 percent in Q1 of 2012), and more than 65 percent of respondents say they plan to use Facebook Ads again. Sellers cite effectiveness in fan and customer acquisition as their top reason (65 percent) for planning more Facebook Ad campaigns. Other reasons for continuing to use Facebook Ad programs include the ability to start and stop campaigns (61 percent) and Facebook Ads’ ease of use (55 percent). In a shift from previous findings, only 48 percent of respondents cited Facebook’s ad targeting capabilities as a reason to continue using the service compared to 59 percent in Q1 2012.

The data also reveals that more established sellers are more active with Facebook Ads: more than half (53 percent) of sellers with 501-1,000 fans have tried Facebook Ads, as opposed to only 29 percent for sellers with 1-10 fans.

Not all Facebook sellers have had success acquiring new fans and customers with Facebook Ads. Among the 35 percent who say they wouldn’t use Facebook Ads again, 61 percent report that they did not acquire many new fans or customers through this channel.

3. Twitter now second most popular marketing vehicle to drive traffic to Facebook storefronts; Pinterest adoption also strong.

Data shows that sellers are actively marketing their Facebook storefronts and products on Facebook through posts on their Facebook page (80 percent) and plan to continue this tactic in the future (82 percent). Twitter has become the second most popular marketing vehicle to drive traffic, with 35 percent of sellers posting tweets to push shoppers to their storefronts, as compared to 33 percent in Q1 of this year. 41 percent of sellers plan to use Twitter to market their store in the next six months.

Pinterest has also become a popular channel for sellers to market their Facebook stores. 20 percent of sellers report using Pinterest as a marketing vehicle, and 32 percent plan to use Pinterest in the next six months.

Nearly one-third of sellers are promoting their Facebook store on their company web site (32 percent), 30 percent are using email marketing, and a small percentage also use paid media outside of Facebook to attract new fans and customers: 8 percent are running print ads, 9 percent are using direct mail and 7 percent are buying search ads on Google.

4. The ability to market and sell products on the same platform is a top benefit for sellers.

Sellers are seeing the value in Facebook as a way to build a customer database. Nearly half of respondents state that their favorite part of selling on Facebook is that shoppers can easily “Like” their page so they can market to them later. Sellers are also implementing a variety of marketing tactics on Facebook to drive sales, including offering deals (30 percent) and product promotions (26 percent).

The survey also validates the appeal of Facebook as a platform where sellers can both market and sell their products. When asked what they like best about selling on Facebook, the majority of respondents cite the ability to promote their products via social marketing as a top benefit (56 percent). About the same number of people (54 percent) also like that customers don’t have to leave Facebook to buy their products.

About the F-Commerce Facts Survey

The F-Commerce Facts survey was conducted by Payvment, the number one Facebook ecommerce platform whose more than 185,000 active sellers drive nearly 80 percent of all the shopping on Facebook. This survey was fielded online, between September 17, 2012 and October 4, 2012, and sent to a random sample of Payvment’s seller base of over 185,000 business owners. There were 1,038 total responses from sellers worldwide. Nearly half (45 percent) of respondents were new sellers on Facebook (less than 3 months), and 74 percent of respondents report having fewer than 500 fans. Respondents were incentivized to complete the survey with a chance to win $50 in Facebook Ad credits.

About Payvment

Payvment, Inc. (www.payvment.com) is an award-winning, venture-backed startup that has created the number one Facebook ecommerce platform. Payvment provides one of the only apps that enable brands and merchants to create their own storefronts and get discovered by the more than one billion people who use Facebook. Payvment has over 185,000 active sellers offering more than 5 million products across Facebook as well as Lish.com. Sellers can launch a free store in 15 minutes at www.payvment.com.