Etailer Play.com revealed that Facebook accounted for over £2m of direct sales last year.

The online retailer Play.com, owned by Japanese giant Rakuten, has calculated that people that ‘like’ its brand on Facebook spend 24% more than customers who are not engaged with it on the social network.

The retailer paired up with social marketing platford EngageSciences to analyse the shopping behaviour of its Facebook fans.

Over the past 12 months Play.com has quadrupled its Facebook following to 350,000 and it now has 40,000 Twitter followers. Sales directed from Facebook have jumped 80% over the year.

Rakuten Play.com director of marketing Adam Stewart said: “Through intelligent engagement, social fans, particularly on Facebook, are massively valuable to online retailers. In fact, Facebook fans can be more valuable to online retailers than those gained through paid-for channels.”