RAPAPORT...
The “2012 Social and Mobile Commerce” study, a joint research project
by Shop.org, comScore, and The Partnering Group stressed the importance
of social media for retailers since nearly two out of five online
consumers follow retailers through social networking. The study found
that social media space Pinterest has become a particularly big player
in the social sharing game, with online U.S. consumers reporting that
they already follow an average of 9.3 retail companies through that
website compared with the average of 6.9 retailers they follow on
Facebook and the 8.5 retailers they track via Twitter. Almost two out of
five online consumers follow retailers through one or more social
networking sites.
Shop.org's executive director, Vicki Cantrell,
noted that, ''Pinterest has given retailers another channel to ‘listen’
to and interact with both existing and new customers, telling an ongoing
visual story through images of their products and their brand ‘spirit',
a story that customers can then tell again to their friends and family
members.''
While Pinterest has grown into this space fairly
recently, blogs, YouTube and Facebook still command the majority of
consumers’ social activity. In particular, seven in 10 of those who
follow a retailer’s blog click through to the website, and more than
two-thirds of consumers use YouTube to browse and research a retail
company.
The main reason consumers follow retailers on social
media -- locate product promotions. The amount of consumers searching
for these promotions, however, has dropped to 51 percent from 58 percent
in the past year. Four in 10 consumer also say they look for product
information on social media, while 36 percent want to post/read comments
about merchandise or services. Additionally, around three in 10
consumers who follow retailers via social media say they are actively
looking for information about events, current trends and ideas, or
photos and videos, such as “how-to’s” and styling ideas, as well as
expert opinions.
Consumers are also using their smartphones and
tablet devices to connect to retailers via social media platforms. The
survey found those with smartphones are most likely to use their device
for social reasons, such as contacting friends and family about products
they see and searching for items nearby, while tablets are more likely
to be used to make purchases and comparison shop.
Specifically,
nearly four in 10 smartphone owners who shop online say they use their
smartphone to take pictures of products and more than one-third said
they send the pictures of the products they see to friends, and
text/call friends/family about specific products while shopping.
One-third
of consumers who own smartphones also say they have shared their
location with retailers. Location-based services, such as Groupon Now!,
FourSquare and Facebook have effectively helped retailers instantly
reach new and existing customers by targeting special offers, discounts
and coupons to their mobile devices once they’ve “checked-in.”
The
study found that men are more likely than women to share their location
with a retailer (40 percent for males vs. 25 percent for females), and
nearly half of those in the 18 to 34-year-old set say they have shared
their location, compared to just around two in 10 of those in the age
group of 35 to 54.
“For retailers, the possibilities are endless
when it comes to enticing smartphone owners who may be within a few feet
of their store or even already in the store, thanks to technology that
lets shoppers who want to hear from retailers instantly interact with
them,” said Jennifer Vlahavas, the senior director of comScore.
"And
while check-in and store location functionality are already gaining
popularity, retailers have only just scratched the surface of using
location data to better serve their customers. In-store shopping maps
and customized shopping lists are a few of the possibilities that will
cater to the consumer," she said.
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