Figures from Bazaarvoice indicate that a growing number of British consumers are taking advantage of social media to uncover the best products and services to buy via safe shopping online.

Internet Retailing reports that there has been a 38 per cent uptick in the practice of finding deals on social media in the last year, with around a third of people now placing the visibility of brands on social media amongst the most important factors involved in shaping buying decisions.

The power of social media in a shopping context is largely down to the ease with which multimedia content can be shared. Nine in ten people questioned in the study said that they believed the ability to see pictures and videos of products on platforms like Instagram helped to boost their engagement levels.

The fact that consumers are turning to social media to discover products is no surprise. In fact, it could be a symptom of the way that brands are leaning heavily on influencer marketing to get their products out in the open without having to rely on paid-for postings that fall under their own accounts.

Integrating products and services naturally into the social feeds of users via the personalities they already follow is giving retailers and businesses a stronger foothold in the digital sphere, although successfully converting consumers from these platforms is still tricky. Search engines remain the most potent tool for coaxing customers on to shopping sites, which means that retailers are effectively having to divide their efforts to optimise their impact.

Of course, by improving the visibility of a brand on social media, it is possible to make it more trustworthy and recognisable when it is subsequently encountered by prospective customers elsewhere, so there is some symbiosis at work.