Social Media Benchmark Wave 5 Dec 2011

For informed direction

Social Media Benchmark
Retail

Issue 5
December 2011

Private & Confidential
© eDigitalResearch 2011
This document is for information purposes only
eDigitalResearch makes no warranties, expressed or implied, in this document

Contents

Introduction
Methodology
Results
Facebook
New Followers
Percentage Growth
Best Practice
The Growth of fCommerce
Twitter
New Followers
Best Practice
The Introduction of Twitter brand pages

Conclusion
How to run a successful social media campaign
The introduction of Google+
About eDigitalResearch
Contacts

This document is for information purposes only 2

Introduction
2011 has seen huge leaps in social media technology and the uptake by consumers. The
introduction of fCommerce is fundamentally changing the ways that retailers are now using and
investing in various platforms. Our fourth study in June 2011 continued to demonstrate how popular
social media is with retail customers. Brands are now fully embracing various platforms, including
new and emerging sites, in an attempt to engage, interact and influence online consumers. This,
the fifth study of it’s kind, looks to document and demonstrate that rise in popularity.

Over the past decade, we have watched, monitored and benchmarked the fundamental rise of the
ecommerce industry here in the UK with our invaluable eRetail Benchmark reports. In the past ten
years, the industry has evolved from basic transactional retail sites, through to today’s innovative,
engaging and user friendly retail websites.

eDigitalResearch have now taken our years of experience and expertise benchmarking sites and
applied it to our fourth social media benchmark study, assessing how over 100 of the UK’s top retail
organisations by revenue are using the platforms to benefit both the business and the consumer.

The following report contains the key findings from our
fifith study, including highlighting those retail brands that are
getting it right, the current social media trends and innovations,
as well as our thoughts on how to run a successful social media
campaign and what the future may hold.
Our influential
benchmarking reports
Sign up for the
benchmarking area here


Methodology

Between the 28th November and the 5th December 2011, our specialist retail
researchers and dedicated social media team studied over 100 top retail brands by
revenue according to Retail Week’s Knowledge Bank. We looked at retailers’
presence (or lack of) on the most influential and popular social media sites, including
Twitter and Facebook, and monitored the number of followers and fans.

Alongside this, our team also looked at the quality of output and productivity in an
attempt to measure the levels of innovative customer engagement by brands,
studying messages by subject and topic.

Using HUB, our powerful insight and analysis tool, we were then able to drill down
our findings to highlight successful brands across each social platform, as well as
drawing attention to those brands that integrate consumer conversation throughout
all social media sites.

In order to establish which retail sectors are using social media
to the best of their advantage, we also cross compared the top
performing brands from fashion, department
stores, grocery and specialist retailers, in an attempt to
understand social media best practice.


Key Findings
Topshop remain at the top of the Facebook leagues tables. However it is rivals ASOS that have made the biggest
progress in 2011 and are just 30,000 fans away from the number one spot having added nearly half a million new fans
in the last six months alone.
ASOS are now number one in the Twitter league tables having overtaken Topshop who have dominated the top of the
tables since the benchmark began in August 2010.
ASOS have a winning formula of producing interactive features to keep users interested whilst creating an engaging
social media personality that encourages followers to get involved. By attempting to talk to users, not as a brand, but
almost as a friend, ASOS will drastically strengthen customer relationships and increase the number of influential
customers.
Six out of the Top 20 now have Facebook stores, and all but three are using the site to sell to users in one way or
another.
Retailers with an estabished presence on both Twitter and Facebook continue to dominate the league tables, increasing
their reach through existing and engaged followers.
Tesco continue their assent up the league tables, despite only launching their Facebook offering earlier this year. A
comprehensive page filled with a variety of features, including a Facebook store has helped to achieve this.
Almost all of the Top 20 are using their Facebook pages and Twitter accounts to engage with customers. As social
media behaviour continues to evolve, it is important for brands to understand that they need to be doing more to
engage their customers. By creating bespoke social media features, retailers are able to encourage conversation
around their brands, helping to spread their reach on any given network.
Eight out of the Top 20 now also have an active presence of Google+, although follower numbers and engagement
levels are a lot lower than on other sites. Topman are currently winning this race though, with 750 fans, a considerable
amount more than others in the league tables.
The introduction of Twitter brand pages will become an important feature for retailers in 2012. Going forward, content
will be more easily shared across sites given the similar design and concept to Facebook pages and allows them to
devise more interactive ways of communicating with customers online

RESULTS

6

Facebook Followers Top 20
Position Retailer ** No. of
Followers
(Issue 5)*

1 Topshop 1,731,131 =

2 ASOS 1,395,211 +2

3 New Look 1,154,939 -1

4 River Island 1,068,468 -1

5 Claire’s Accessories 688,233 -1

6 Next 679,586 -1

7 Net-A-Porter 598,410 =

8 La Senza 474,280 =

9 Tesco 442,614 +2

10 Marks & Spencer 417,509 -1

11 Accessorize 358,374 N/A

12 Phones 4U 344,518 N/A

13 Greggs 297,942 N/A
Topshop continue their reign at the top of the table, 14 JD Sports 291,264 -4
attracting almost 230,000 new Facebook fans. 15 John Lewis 279,083 +11

John Lewis make the biggest jump up the table moving up 16 Argos 278,918 +4

11 places since the last results back in June 2011. 17 Sainsbury’s 264,955 =

ASOS are the biggest climbers in the Top 10 and are now 18 Dorothy Perkins 228,814 =

just over 300,000 fans away from the top spot. 19 French Connection 220,761 -7

Accessorize, Phones 4U and Greggs also make it into the 20 Topman 199,435
*During the week commencing 28th November 2011
-5

Top 20 for the first time. **Where possible, we measured the number of fans of UK
branded pages


Facebook Followers: New Followers
Position Retailer No. of new
followers ASOS have added nearly half a million new fans attracting
1 ASOS 498,370
over double the amount of users to closest rivals Topshop.
2 Topshop 229,764
Unsurprisingly, ASOS have attracted more new followers
3 Tesco 220,137
than any other retailer as the pure-play brand continues to
4 John Lewis 210,503
take over the social media scene.
5 Argos 202,028 Tesco continue their rise up the social media ranks after only
6 New Look 147,384 launching their Facebook campaign early in 2011. The
7 Sainsbury ‘s 143,264
supermarket first entered the league tables in June 2011
after attracting the majority of their then 222,000 fans in
8 Net-A-Porter
Claire’s
135,754
just a few short months.
9 128,829
Accessories
10 Dorothy Perkins 124,773
ASOS have a winning Facebook formula.
11 House of Fraser 113,658

12 Marks & Spencer 97,719

13 Next 65,817

14 River Island 65,078

15 Amazon.co.uk 61,681

16 JD Sports 55,313

17 Topman 51,075

18 La Senza 40,546

19 All Saints 37,746
Tesco’s variety of comprehensive tabs within their page
20 Game 33,865 have helped build a big following fast.


Facebook Followers: Percentage Growth
Position Retailer % Growth*
John Lewis has seen the biggest growth to it’s Facebook account as
the department store favourite continues to impress users with
1 John Lewis 307% engaging campaigns, both on and off the site and helping them to
2
Early Learning
Centre
286% move 11 places up the league table in six months.
3 Argos 263% 11 retailers outside the Top 20 have managed to significantly grow
4 Burton 186% their fan base over the past six months as Facebook becomes more
5 Clarks shoes 161%
and more of an integral part of marketing strategies.
6 Cath Kidston 146% ASOS is the only retailer in the Top 5 to considerably grow their
existing fan base since June 2011, adding 56% of it’s current
7 Amazon.co.uk 126%
following the last six months alone.
8 Gap 125%

9 Dorothy Perkins 120%

10 Sainsbury’s 118%

11 Tesco 99%

12 Iceland 80%

13 Waitrose 78%

14 Mothercare 76%

15 Screwfix 69%

16 B&Q 66%
Interactive page features created specifically for
17 Evans 62%
different audiences, as well as the introduction of
18 ASOS 56% some Facebook stores, have helped retailers
19 Debenhams 53% significantly grow their presence in recent months.
20 Oasis 39%
*With a significant reach of 15,000 followers or more


Facebook Best Practice: John Lewis
Interactive features, such as the ‘Find
the perfect gift’ feature will keep users
on retailer’s pages for longer. By linking
the end product directly back to the
website, John Lewis are able to
encourage sales and increase
engagement levels.

John Lewis have created bespoke interactive features for
their Facebook page that integrates well with the retailer’s
Christmas marketing message. This is a clever way of
increasing engagement levels on the site and involves much
more than just reposting content designed for other
channels. Consumer studies from eDigitalResearch show
that people expect a seamless shopping experience no
matter where they shop, including Facebook.

John Lewis encourage users to participate in the business,
asking them to vote each month on what charity the
company should support.

The Growth of fCommerce

Six out of the Top 20 retailers now have a
Facebook store integrated within their page.
All but three of the Top 20 are using the
platform to sell directly to Facebook users in
one way or another.
ASOS is still the only retailer in the Top 5 to
have a Facebook store.
If the budget does not exist to develop a
Facebook store of their own, retailers need
to be integrating direct product page links
into their posts, forums and features in an
ASOS, French Connection, Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Tesco and attempt to make the route to purchase
JD Sports are all selling through Facebook stores. easier for followers and encourage more
sales.
Recent online consumer behaviour results
from eDigitalResearch show that there has
been an 8.8% growth in fCommerce in just
four short months.
fCommerce is beginning to show real return
on investment for retailers. Tesco recently
announced that it has seen £1.5million sales
Next has implemented a website search feature onto their
generated through its store.
Facebook page, giving users easier access to their products.


Real engagement on social media
As Facebook behaviour continues to evolve, brands need to be doing more to engage with
their followers.
Just offering exclusive promotions and content from other channels does not really count for
engagement any more.
Brands should encourage three way interaction between themselves and their customers, as
well as customer-to-customer conversations to really get people engaged in the brand.
Almost all of the Top 20 are using their Facebook pages to truly engage and interact with
users, not just through promotions, but also with competitions, questions and answers and
bespoke features, proving that a successful Facebook strategy involves more than just
pushing marketing material and website content.


Facebook in 2011
Since announcing at the beginning of the year the launch of the UK’s first
Facebook store, ASOS have had the most successful social media campaign of all,
attracting far more followers than any of it’s closest rivals, yet is still just one
place away from the top spot in the Facebook league tables.

2011

Twitter Followers Top 20
Position Company No. of
Followers
(Issue 4)*

1 ASOS 251,665 +1
2 Topshop 238,760 -1

3 Net-A-Porter 207,937 =

4 Harrods 70,430 N/A

5 Selfridges 62,499 -1

6 Marks & Spencer 47,745 +1

7 Amazon.co.uk 45,967 +3

8 River Island 43,620 -3

9 New Look 41,425 -3
ASOS have successfully managed to create a brand personality, tweeting behind-
10 Waterstone's -2
the-scenes pictures and encouraging interaction with their followers, pushing
33,601

11
them to the top of the Twitter league tables. Game 31,332 -2

12 Sainsbury’s -1
ASOS have now overtaken Topshop as the most popular retailer
30,091

on Twitter, with over 10,000 more fans than anyone else. 13 All Saints 26,640 -1

14 Cath Kidston +7
The Top 3 continue to dominate the channel, with third place 26,446

Net-A-Porter almost 150,000 fans away from fourth place 15 Asda 24,973 N/A

Harrods. 16 HMV 24,027 -2

High end brands Net-A-Porter, Harrods and Selfridges have all 17 Topman 23,835 -5

made it into the Top 5, suggesting that Twitter users like to use 18 Argos 18,495 -3

the channel to connect with more aspirational brands than other 19 Waitrose 17,558 -3
platforms. 20 Next 15,574

Cath Kidston has made the biggest jump up the table, moving 7 *During the week commencing 28th November 2011
**Where possible, we measured the number of fans of UK
places and into the Top 20 for the first time. branded pages


Twitter: New Followers
Position Company Number of
new ASOS are outperforming all other retailers on Twitter,
followers
successfully building on their established presence.
1 ASOS 92,958
Brands with an established following on Twitter are generally
2 Topshop 61,923 doing better to grow their reach on the site and attact new
3 Net-A-Porter 61,608 followers. Having more followers obviously means that they
4 Amazon.co.uk 25,149 have more opportunity to attract more friends of fans.
5 Selfridges 21,182
John Lewis and Tesco are the only two retailers to increase
6 Marks & Spencer 19,287 their following by a large number and not make it into the Top
7 River Island 12,433 20. John Lewis sit just outside the league tables at 23, whilst
8 New Look 11,607 Tesco make their entrance slightly lower down at 31.
9 Sainsbury’s 11,164

10 HMV 10,321

11
Theory* suggests that each and every
Game 10,164
person has an average of 150 online
12 Cath Kidston 8,794
connections. With that in mind, brands
13 John Lewis 8,274 are technically just 1 away from 150
14 All Saints 8,027 other followers each and every time
15 Topman 7,295 they add a new user to their following,
16 Tesco 7,197
stressing the importance of trying to
grow social media accounts.
17 Argos 6,926 *Dunbar’s number principal
18 Waitrose 6,409

19 Waterstone's 6,248

20 Miss Selfridge 5,935


Twitter Best Practice: Harrods and Selfridges
Despite being more aspirational brands, Harrods and Selfridges
have managed to create a Twitter account that will appeal to
both their target market and the core Twitter demographic by
tapping into trends relevant to Twitter users.

Using multimedia within tweets encourages users to
click through to the whole profile or story and is likely to
attract more new followers.

By linking to celebrity accounts and involving them in their
profiles, Harrods and Selfridges are able to increase their
reach to followers of associated celebrity accounts. More
interesting tweets like this will also appeal to the celebrity
culture that exists on the site.


The introduction of Twitter brand pages

The introduction of Twitter brand pages will help retailers to increase their
presence on the platform and add to their reach.
Brand pages allow more customisation over the look of pages and the ability to
show embedded multimedia, all which will go some way to help to increase
engagement levels.
It also allows retailers to integrate their messages across social media platforms
better, given the similar concept and the design of Facebook pages. It should
help free up social media executives time and allow them to devise more
interactive ways of communicating with online users.

CONCLUSION

18

Conclusion

Social media has continued to grow at a phenomenal rate in 2011. A staggering 2.6 million new followers have
joined the Top 20 retailers alone on Facebook, whilst an additional 400,000 Twitter users are now actively
following brand accounts.

Growing social media accounts is essential if brands want to broaden their audience and reach as many of
their potential target market as possible. As high street spending figures continue to drop, social media is a
fantastic way of re-creating a brand experience online and engaging with customers.

Following the introduction of their Facebook store in early 2011, ASOS have dominated the leagues this year,
attracting more new followers than anyone else and now top the Twitter league tables. ASOS have a winning
formula of creating a brand personality on Twitter that encourages followers to get involved in conversations,
whilst their variety of bespoke features on their Facebook page keeps followers interested and intrigued.

As social networks become more commercially friendly, especially with the introduction of Twitter and
Google+ brand pages, it is important for brands to take advantage of the opportunities sites like these are
offering them. However, with these changes often come a shift in user behaviour. As social media trends
continue to evolve, it is important that brands re-visit their strategies and make the necessary changes to
ensure that users remain interested and engagement levels remain high.


How to run a successful social media campaign

Understand
social Update
content
media regularly
trends ‘Offline’
Interact Constantly
with update
integration
followers
social
By understanding what media
users have come to expect strategies
Ensure
on social media sites, channel Reward
retailers will be able to specifics loyal users Consumer behaviour on
communicate better and remain
social media sites is
more effectively with their
constantly evolving.
followers. Using a simple
eDigitalResearch consumer
survey deployed on a
Mirror Make sure studies have already shown
Facebook page, or utilising
brand you’re big leaps in the popularity
the Facebook poll feature is image and easy to of fCommerce in just a few
a great way of doing this. values find
short months. As a result,
retailers need to make sure
Promote that they constantly revisit
Integrate
product
pages and
campaigns their strategies and update
across as necessary.
develop Capture all platforms
them feedback
and insight


The introduction of Google+ and brand pages
Whilst brands still tread carefully on Google’s latest venture into social media, some retailers
are attempting to establish a following from the offset.
Retailers were later in the uptake on Facebook than most consumers. By occupying space
on emerging social media channels, retailers can combat the issue of having to catch up on
trends and behavior to communicate with customers as they have in the past.
8 out of the Top 20 retailers are already on Google+ and posting content, although a lot
less frequently than on other sites as user trends and behaviour continues to develop.
Topman are currently the most successful retailer on Google+ with 750 followers, a
considerable amount more than most other retailers on the site.


About eDigitalResearch

22

eDigitalResearch – Who are we and what do we do

• established in 1999 by current directors/owners
• self funded, financially secure, clear ethics
We are one of the • own system with outstanding technical support
leading providers of • team of research professionals
digital market research • company partners – MRS and ESOMAR
• The Sunday Times Top 100 Best Small Companies To
Work For 2011

We are migrating • reducing costs – fixed pricing model
traditional market
• faster results – real time results
research to digital
• improving accuracy – no response or panel limits
methodologies

• social networking (digital communities)
We are developing and • maximising respondent engagement
introducing innovative
• industry norms/benchmarking
research solutions
• mCommerce/mResearch


Product Overview

eMysteryShopper eDigitalSurvey

• ‘Closed group’ research • ‘Open’ user research
• Usability & • Visitor/user opinion
‘end to end’ experience • Key performance indicators
• Brand advocacy
• Benchmarking
HUB
eBuzzBox
ePanelManager
• Automated qual-to-quant
• Omnibus research eDigitalCommunities text analysis
• Client panel management •Full reporting of verbatim
• Media panels comments across any digital
• Web 2.0 medium
• 3 way dialogue from
profiled users
• Product ratings
• Net chats


eDigitalResearch
Vanbrugh House
Grange Drive
Hedge End
Hampshire
SO30 2AF
Tel: 01489 772920
www.edigitalresearch.com
@eDRTweet
eDigitalResearch
Key Contacts:
Michelle Fuller - Director
Lisa Bonczyk – Associate Director – Sales and Marketing
Liana Vickery – Marketing Executive


Social Media Benchmark Wave 5 Dec 2011

Recomendados

Recomendados

Mais conteúdo relacionado

Semelhante a Social Media Benchmark Wave 5 Dec 2011

Semelhante a Social Media Benchmark Wave 5 Dec 2011 (20)

Social Media Benchmark Wave 5 Dec 2011