Dave Bird has claimed that social media will allow online retailers to become more successful and influence an increasing number of customers.

People ordering goods online and having them sent to their homes by delivery service will increasingly use Facebook and other social networking sites as retail channels, according to a web marketing expert.

Dave Bird of Webtistic.co.uk argued that social media as an online shopping driver, or f-commerce, will become an increasingly important part of the internet retail landscape.

Mr Bird explained that he expects companies to harness the power of social media brands to mobilise shoppers.

"I expect to see further models in which online customers are encouraged to talk about brands they have shopped at in return for incentives," he added.

The web marketing guru also posited that smaller businesses will be able to use f-commerce to gain a foothold in the market.

A survey from eDigitalResearch recently found that 400,000 people in the UK follow retail outlets on Twitter and 2.6 million are fans of top shopping outlets on Facebook.

Author:  Paul Burn