---
title: "Increase conversions by removing social sharing buttons"
description: "Removing social sharing buttons increased add-to-cart by 12%. Low share counts breed distrust; people share content, not products."
date: "2015-09-21T00:00:00.000Z"
canonical: "https://www.antonsten.com/articles/increase-conversions-by-removing-social-sharing-buttons/"
---

Just like I outlined in a previous popular post, ["What's the cost of 'sharing'?"](https://www.antonsten.com/what-is-the-cost-of-sharing/), conversions might actually benefit from not having social sharing buttons.

Turns out by a [test ran by Visual Website Optimizer](https://vwo.com/blog/removing-social-sharing-buttons-from-ecommerce-product-page-increase-conversions/?utm_source=intercom&utm_medium=email&utm_content=H4&utm_campaign=nurture) that when Taloon removed their social sharing buttons, their add-to-cart increased by nearly 12%.

> "According to Jani Uusi-Pantti, the number of shares on most of his product pages were zero. While high number of shares and likes act as a positive reinforcement, low number of shares breed distrust in the mind of the customer about both the company and the quality of the product."
>
> People want to share content, not products. Even if you're IKEA, Amazon or Target, you're not going to have thousands of people sharing a product. And while it might work for a hugely popular product like an iPhone, it's not going to work for the extra USB-cord, the charger or a bumper case.