Engaging customers through social networking sites has to be one of the best forms of marketing to come out since TV commercials. This time they’re not brainwashing us with a repetitious jingle or colorful images, they’re just getting us to engage in the products. What does that mean? To the consumer it means an opportunity to get special discounts and hear what others are saying about the products before we purchase them, but to online retailers it means a whole lot more.

One of the biggest financial failures for online retailers or service providers occurs when consumers visit their sites , create a guest account and leave without purchasing the items or services left in their shopping carts. Essentially, they shopped, but didn’t buy. Logging in and engaging brands via social networking sites offers a unique opportunity for these retailers to find out why you didn’t purchase, offer you a special promotion, and in many cases, see what other products you may have been interested in.

Sites like pinterest, Twitter, G+, Linkedin, and Facebook allow both the user and the retailer to benefit from mutually shared information. We can search for reviews and products specs, and they can search for novel ways to get us to buy. This next infographic from Monetate.Com gives us the lowdown on how getting logged in on social sites brings more value to ecommerce and the consumer. It’s worth taking a look at.