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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