Derek Eccleston

The study, from eDigitalResearch, shows that ASOS managed to attract almost 500,000 new followers since April 2011, capitalising on their core online customer base with an engaging campaign across both platforms, including the expansion of their Facebook store, as well as encouraging users onto pages with the incentive of exclusive offers and sale previews. ASOS integrate campaigns across all social touch points, including their own website, managing to maintain customer relationship and broadcast news and information to a larger online audience.

Fashion retailer Topshop continues to reign at the top of both league tables, with over 1.5 million fans on Facebook alone as they continue to attract a vocal international audience. Facebook remains the most popular site for people to connect with brands, with the top twenty retailers attracting a combined total of almost 8 million followers.

Social media continues to prove popular with consumers and cements the importance for retailers and UK brands of having a presence across these platforms. As retailers begin to understand how to communicate with online shoppers across social media platforms, more and more users are willing to engage with brands within their own personal online space. We’ve already seen from some of our previous research that a small, yet significant, percentage of UK consumers are beginning to use social media as an opportunity to shop and browse. We would expect this number to grow and grow in the coming months as retailer’s social media following continues to increase, allowing them to strengthen bonds with customers and increase revenue stream.

The eDigitalResearch study, which assessed 100 of the UK’s top retailers, found that twelve out of the top twenty Facebook pages are actively selling to followers from the site, either directly or by pushing users back to product pages on websites, in an attempt to turn fans into real customers and gain a real return on investment.

The Social Media Benchmark continually highlights the need for retailers to constantly adapt and evolve campaigns in order to reach as many potential customers as possible. Understanding the importance of using existing loyal consumers to help build a social media presence, eDigitalResearch have recently developed new survey features designed to help promote brands, encouraging respondents who rate products and services highly to recommend a brand or products to their online friends through their social media profile pages, wall posts and link shares.

Unsurprisingly, those retailers with an established social media presence are those that continue to perform well in both the Facebook and Twitter league tables. Supermarket giant Tesco made the biggest improvement, jumping an impressive twenty five places up the table, proving that late adopters can still make an impact with a well thought out campaign that is executed correctly.

Download the Social Media Benchmark report for a copy of the full results, including Facebook and Twitter best practice https://ecustomeropinions.com/survey/survey.php?sid=913358375. Alternatively, sign up, or log into, the benchmark area of the website for access to all our benchmarking reports, past and present www.edigitalresearch.com/benchmarking.

Methodology

The retail social media study was undertaken by eDigitalReserarch during the week commencing 27th June 2011, and took into account company verified social media accounts and pages. The research assessed the top 100 UK retail sites, including fashion, electrical and grocery websites, according to recent revenues as provided by Retail Week’s Knowledge Bank. The study looked predominately at Twitter followers, YouTube channels and views, and members of Facebook pages and groups.

About the author and eDigitalResearch

Derek Eccleston is Research Director at eDigitalResearch, a company which research specialists with expertise in online business. Surveys, panels and communities combine to provide holistic insight which gives clients the confidence and evidence to make crucial decisions on product range, marketing, customer service, supply chain and even basic positioning. For more information, visit www.edigitalresearch.com or email info@edigitalresearch.com.