Sociable Labs: 50% of e-commerce site users log in with Facebook accounts

E-commerce sites should consider using Facebook data to personalize their sites. Research from Sociable Labs shows that 50% of e-commerce site users log in using Facebook accounts, and the percentage ranges from 40% to 60% for different types of users. Using Facebook social plugins, e-commerce sites can use Facebook data to show what users' friends have bought and shared, what products they might like, and which friends they might want to invite.

The latest survey results released by the social commerce website Sociable Labs on November 23, 2011 show that half of the visitors to e-commerce websites are currently Facebook users. Therefore, e-commerce websites should consider using Facebook data to personalize their websites.

With the help of Facebook social plug-ins and Connect services, e-commerce websites can make full use of Facebook data to show visitors what products or services their friends have purchased or shared, what products they have "liked", and which friends they may invite. The survey studied 456 million visits to more than a dozen e-commerce websites targeting different user groups.

Sociable Labs helps websites integrate social features. A Facebook spokesperson confirmed that more and more e-commerce websites have added social features. The spokesperson also provided a recent data: 88% of the 200 largest online retailers have integrated with Facebook. Nisan Gabbay, founder and CEO of Sociable Labs, explained that the target age market of e-commerce websites has little impact on the proportion of visitors who log in to Facebook.

Gabay said some of the sites Sociable Labs studied were attracting early adopters, and he spoke to Facebook about the data, which confirmed their validity. And while Sociable Labs could benefit as more sites add social features, the sample size is large enough to reduce the possibility of bias.