Social media sites are rapidly ramping up their use of “buy” buttons for visitors. With buy buttons, social media users can instantly be linked to a shopping site for an item. But, do people really want buy buttons?
According to eMarketer, the answer for many people may be no:
“Social networks have been experimenting with — and even fully implementing — buy buttons into their platforms for a while. And though social media users are turning to platforms like Instagram and Pinterest to research brands and products, they are not that interested in actually using the buy buttons there.”
“GlobalWebIndex polled social media users worldwide ages 16 to 64 in November 2015. When it came to their interest in using buy buttons via select social media networks, few were interested: Only 17% of respondents who used Tumblr said they were interest in using Tumblr’s buy buttons, and those were the most popular. Even fewer said they were interested in Instagram’s (14%), Pinterest’s (13%), or Twitter’s (12%) buy buttons. Interest was lowest for Facebook’s buy buttons; just 9% of Facebook users said it appealed to them.”
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Often, when I’m spending time on social media, I’m catching up with friends and family that do not live near me. To me social media is a great way to connect with people near and far, and also to connect on a professional level. I do not like the idea of having a ‘buy’ button as it can be very distracting. If I wanted to purchase an item online, I would most definitely not make a purchase on social media websites.
I feel that implementing a “buy” button into a social media application is a great way to decrease popularity. It will make the service seem to corporate; people are surrounded by advertisements and sale pitches everywhere they go, and they certainly don’t want to be bothered by such things when they are on a social media platform trying to focus on engaging with other people.
Personally I do not see a reason for a “buy” button for social media. Social media is meant to connect people online to make communication easier. To advertise more and try to sell items while people are trying to socialize will decrease popularity due to the annoyance. There is a reason why amazon and ebay exist, so that people can buy items online. Social media is not the place for it.
While the poor response to the implementation of a buy button on social media might have been poorly received thus far it is hard for social media websites it is hard to be critical of social media websites to attempt to monazite the massive flow traffic they receive.
I feel it would be interesting if instead of implementing a simple “buy” button social media websites featured a shop button that would provide access to multiple sale websites similar to google shopping. I feel if multiple shopping options were available to users it would seem less forceful and likely be more positively received.
Personally, I feel that buy buttons kind of hinder the progression that so many social media sights have seen. By dangling this buy option in front of people, it detracts from what they’re really trying to do – communicate with long distance friends. No one wants to be bothered by an advertisement while they’re having a conversation with a friend they haven’t seen in a while, that’s like being on the phone with a far-away relative and having some advertisement randomly dial in during your conversation.
With or without Buy button, we are still going to be constantly exposed to brands products and advertising in general, therefore, in my opinion these advertisements might as well have the Buy button so we as interested consumer can easily access the product store and buy it.
I agree with this article. I like seeing clothing items and other different products. I would not want to buy any of these because I just sometimes like using my browser and looking at new items. I see a lot of things I like but I wouldn’t buy them all because that would get out of hand. Putting a buy botton is forcing people to shop. if people want that item they wil go onto the website to find it.
star wars has been around for a long time with iconic and classic movies like revenge of the sith and the empire strikes back preceding the newer animated series and movies. These have helped attract the older and newer generations. Newcomers might also be attracted by the animated series and movies. All of this has helped to create one of the most popular, iconic and recognizable brands and names that new movies like this bank on. Entertainment wise it may not live up to the incredibly high bar set by its hype, but financial wise it will do more than live up to it. It may be good but not great and that is actually the case with many of the over hyped movies today.
I use social media for networking and keeping in touch purposes. Having a buy button is something I do not find remotely appealing. I don’t even like to see ads on Facebook or Instagram based off of things I recently looked at. If I really want to go shopping, I would rather just go straight to the brand’s website.
I use social media a lot and I don’t want buy buttons because it will encourage me to buy more items than I should. From a consumer’s standpoint, buying products on social media will affect how we save and intern affect our savings. I suggest we leave social media the way it is
I believe this is not a good idea because social media is meant to connect and extend your network. When you add the buy buttons, personally I would be annoyed. There are already enough annoyances in social media, there is no need to have a buy button to add to it. You don’t need to change something if it’s already successful. I think they shouldn’t mess with what they have right now.