• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, November 19, 2013

Social channels account for less than 1% of total shopping sessions, but of all the social sites connecting or leading consumers to goods and services, research shows that Facebook drives the most traffic, accounting for 60% of social sessions. 

Facebook produces more than three times the number of social shopping sessions -- about 4.31 million -- compared with other social networks, such as Polyvore with 1.41 million sessions. It also produces 10 times the number of orders, according to RichRelevance data.

RichRelevance will release its Fourth Quarter Social Media Shopping study next week. The study analyzes nearly 700 million online shopping sessions to highlight how social channels impact ecommerce. David Selinger, the company's CEO, explains that the data drills into consumer shopping behavior to identify emerging trends.

Facebook's average conversion rate comes in at about 2.69%, compared with that of non-social shopping sessions, at about 2.98%. Facebook generates more than 7 times more orders than the next most successful social site.

While Facebook dominates other social sites in terms of conversions, Pinterest has grown 10% in the past year and now accounts for 1.1 million sessions, or about 25% of total social shopping sessions -- up 14% from 2012. The site generates more than double the AOV of Facebook.

Twitter continues to lag, producing the smallest numbers across the board. It delivers the least amount of social shopping sessions, about 322,000, and accounts for only 5% of traffic.

Polyvore, along with Pinterest and Twitter, show conversion rates of 1.17%, .96% and .49%, respectively, according to the study's findings.

While Facebook supported the highest sales -- at $10.7 million -- Polyvore drove the highest average order value, with consumers spending $383.34 per session. Pinterest followed with $199.16 AOV per session, more than doubling Facebook at $92.27 and more than tripling Twitter, at $58.02.

The study is based on data from more than 689 million shopping sessions that took place between Jan. 1 and Sept. 31, 2013.