Social shopping techniques will play a role in how consumers find deals this holiday shopping season, according to a survey from Guidance conducted by Synovate. Nearly 30 percent of online shoppers say the best way to find discounts online is through link forwarding, peer comments or social sites.

Guidance asked 1,000 online consumers, "In your opinion, which one of the following is the best way to find out about bargains or discounts online?" Email tops the list, with 45 percent of respondents saying it's the best way to learn about deals. Other traditional "top-down," retailer-to-consumer channels were cited, as well: 16 percent said they find out about discounts from a message from the retailer on its own website, and 10 percent cited banner ads.

But "social actions" are gaining ground as a source of shopper influence. The second most popular way to find out about bargains was from "friends forwarding a link to the product," cited by 16.5 percent of survey respondents. Nine percent said they learn about deals from another shopper's comments on the retail site (through product reviews or other feedback mechanism). And 3 percent said they learn about deals "from friends via Twitter, Facebook or other social networking site."

"Two years ago, social media wasn't even considered a source of traffic by merchants. But today, nearly 30 percent of consumers cite some form of "social action" as the best way to find out about deals or discounts online," said Jon Provisor, Guidance CTO and Owner.

http://www.guidance.com