The vast majority of adults are worried about shopping on Facebook because of security concerns.  

New research by marketing communications agency JWT has found that 80% of UK and US adults worry that Facebook isn’t a secure environment in which to shop online. 

The major issues are fears over privacy and the sharing of information with third parties. Surprisingly, it is younger people who are the most concerned about privacy, with 81% of Generation Y expressing concern compared to 75% of Generation X.  

The worries about F-commerce are very similar to the ones experienced by e-commerce in the late 1990s. 

JWT’s report says: “As they experiment with F-commerce, Brands can look at the lessons from that time period for guidance on how to overcome these challenges and ease consumer concerns.”

These findings echo a Havas Media Social/Lightspeed Research survey last month which revealed that many UK consumers avoid shopping on social networks because of security concerns. Most people prefer to visit a brand’s official website to carry out a transaction, even if the special offer appears on a social networking site. 

Posted by 

Neil Turner