Social media has become a vital consumer touch point for businesses in the UK over the past few years and this is particularly prevalent within the retail sector. Retailers were certainly among the first companies to establish their own social media profiles and while many may have initially set out to promote their products to a new digital community base, the social phenomenon expanded to a point where social media fans themselves were used as a means to drive brand advocacy while simultaneously boosting sales.
In 2015 though, digital retailers are harnessing an entirely new aspect of social media and that’s through real time trend monitoring, something that has been trialled by a number of brands within this sector. Arguably one of the first brands to visualise social media trends in store was US-based Nordstrom, which in 2014 helped give a voice to its 4.5 million Pinterest followers by physically tagging in-store products that received the most pins and re-pins on Pinterest. This enabled in-store browsers to view what products were trending across social media, thus showing the power that consumer engagement has in influencing fashion trends.
Social innovations such as the one incorporated by Nordstrom have undoubtedly inspired a range of other retailers such as Burberry and Tommy Hilfiger to trial their own social media campaigns at a variety of fashion events, and the phenomenon is sweeping across the UK. Taking one recent example, during London Fashion Week this year, Topshop and Twitter formed a partnership to display real-time tweets across billboards in several high profile locations around the UK. They were placed in a range of prominent Topshop locations around the country, including the flagship branch at Oxford Circus. The billboards displayed the most popular fashion trends coming out of LFW on social media while offering tailored recommendations to any passers-by on what fashion items to buy that correlated to those trends, encouraging them to either enter a local store or make a direct purchase online.
During the campaign, Topshop experienced 3.8m customer engagements on Twitter and up to 75% sales uplift on featured products online In a similar stunt to Topshop, Hunter chose to stream its own LWF catwalk to shoppers and fashion fans on large-scale outdoor screens in some of Britain’s largest cities, including Glasgow, Birmingham and Manchester in an effort to keep their own customer base informed of trends. Luxury brand Michael Kors partnered with Snapchat to offer exclusive ‘behind the scenes’ content, including snaps of the models, designers and candid front-row shots to increase their awareness at the show, while attempting to highlight key trends at the event to drive sales.
These recent examples show how successful the combination of social media and modern technology can be in engaging with potential shoppers and increase sales at peak times of the year. But the link between social and that final purchase are even more intertwined. Indeed Nielsen’s last global ecommerce report revealed a significant rise in the number of shoppers browsing through products on social media before making a purchase, all but confirming the fact that retailers should no longer view their social media presence as a separate entity, but indeed, as an actual extension to their retail experience.
Looking at how these types of strategies directly lead to increased sales, the Aberdeen Group released research last year showing that more than half (55%) of retail leaders have successfully expanded their customer base using social media, which many claimed led to higher sales. From this, it seems apparent that social media has greatly evolved in the past two years as retailers have become more adventurous with their social media campaigns, taking their profiles from a run of the mill marketing channel, and transforming them into an outlet to highlight trends and push forward purchases through tailored engagement. Retailers that use their assets across social media in 2015 could help to improve their performance, particularly during this time of the year, as the peak summer shopping period kicks in.
By Andy Mallinson, EMEA European Managing Director and CMO of Stackla.
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