ONLINE RETAILERS REPORT GROWTH
IN
USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETPLACES
WASHINGTON - While
paid search and email marketing still top retailers' list of effective customer
acquisition channels, social media has moved up the ranks to become an important
tool for engaging with and attracting new customers. According to the State of
Retailing Online 2015, conducted by Shop.org, Forrester Research Inc. and
Bizrate Insights, 25% of retailers surveyed cite Facebook as a top acquisition
platform.
Underscoring
retailers' heightened use of social to complement search, email and affiliate
marketing tactics, 58% are increasing their year-over-year spend on social media
marketing, second only to the number of companies who are spending more on
search engine marketing (63%).
"It
was not a surprise to see that search and email marketing tools are still
powerful, but to further engage consumers, retailers understand that using
complementary marketing channels, including the use of social media, makes a
tremendous difference in reaching new markets and diversifying their outreach,"
said NRF Senior Vice President and Shop.org Executive Director Vicki Cantrell.
"With so much marketing 'noise' and competition these days, retailers are
testing and investing in a variety of acquisition media to appeal to their
customers and to make the most effective use of their tight marketing budgets."
When it comes to paid
social media specifically, half (50%) of retailers surveyed say they are
spending more this year than last year on paid Facebook options, such as
promoted posts and paid ads; YouTube came in second with 29% saying they will
spend more on paid options for the video website, followed by Pinterest (27%),
Twitter (22%), Instagram (20%) and Snapchat (6%).
Online
Marketplaces Rank Fifth in Customer Acquisition Channels
As more companies look
for ways to grow their e-commerce business and diversify their traffic drivers
beyond search, retailers are also exploring online retail marketplaces - whereby
a retailer sells goods via another retailer's site - to acquire new customers.
The study found that merchants surveyed rank online marketplaces in fifth place
for effectiveness among customer acquisition tools, and 32% are spending more on
this marketing tactic this year than last. On average, retailers surveyed
allocate 16% of their digital marketing budgets to online marketplace
initiatives and operations, second only to search engine marketing (33%), which
is on par with search engine optimization, and just ahead of email marketing
(14%).
"From Wal-Mart and
Alibaba, to Sears and Macy's - the collective world of e-commerce has integrated
the use of marketplaces into their business and benefited from the increased
customer traffic," said Forrester Vice President and Principal Analyst,
Sucharita Mulpuru. "For many retailers, using marketplaces gives them a new way
to compete with Amazon - even if that means selling their products on Amazon
itself."
Site Merchandising Efforts
Focus on the Basics
Site merchandising
connects all the dots for retailers looking to improve their customers' online
shopping experience. The study found that this year retailers are prioritizing
site redesigns for smartphone (55%), tablet (46%) and desktop (41%), and are
also enhancing product pages and improving the checkout process across devices,
among numerous other improvements. To that end, 63% of retailers surveyed
increased their online merchandising budgets this year compared to last, while
half (49%) also increased their online merchandising staffing.
07.21.15