Report: Twitter, tablets gain importance in e-commerce

Conshohocken, Pa. -- Twitter and tablets are quickly rising in importance to retailers’ e-commerce efforts, while email is losing steam. According to the second quarter 2013 Monetate E-commerce Quarterly, Twitter experienced the fastest growth among all social networks in referrals to e-commerce sites, moving from 5.4% of social referrals in second quarter 2012 to 9.64% in second quarter 2013 – a 77% gain.



The numbers show Facebook is still the dominant social force in e-commerce with 61.43% of social media referrals to websites in second quarter 2013, up from 56.89% the previous year. Pinterest continues to expand its role, moving from 14.47% to 21.87% in the same interval.



In addition, mobile is expanding its device share of e-commerce traffic, moving from 15.2% in second quarter 2012 to 22.13% in second quarter 2013. Within that share, tablets represent 12.44% of mobile traffic and smartphones hold a 9.69% share. A year earlier, smartphones were slightly more popular as e-commerce devices.



Meanwhile, both referral traffic and conversion rates to e-commerce websites from email decreased since last year. Referral traffic dropped from 3.75% in the second quarter of 2012 to 2.36% in second quarter 2013, while conversions slipped from 3.56% to 3.34% in the same interval.



Interestingly, average order value from email increased during that time, from $89.43 in second quarter 2012 to $99.93 in second quarter 2013.