News

Report: Most retailers not optimizing social media engagement opportunity

August 23, 2016

Social media is becoming increasingly popular among retailers, but 81 percent of those using the platforms to engage customers acknowledge they need help in optimizing the effort.

That means a very lucrative and rewarding opportunity is likely being missed, according to a new Boston Retail Partners report.

"Social media provides retailers with unprecedented visibility into their customer base. It provides a venue where retailers can directly communicate with their customers and it can be an extremely powerful tool for collecting and using customer insights to improve planning decisions," said Brian Brunk, principal at BRP, in a release. "Retailers can understand who the customer is, what she wants, when and where she wants it, and even why she wants it based on social media postings and feedback."

The report notes five trends taking place among retailers tapping social media channels:

•            Experience: 69 percent of retailers see opportunities to utilize social media to enhance the customer experience.

•            Interaction: 75 percent of retailers support customer interaction via social media.

•            Endorsement: 59 percent of retailers plan to utilize brand advocacy/ social media endorsement as a source for identifying their most valuable customers within three years.

•            Satisfaction: 59 percent of retailers utilize social media comments as a means of measuring customer satisfaction.

•            Insight:  60 percent of retailers capture customer feedback and insights from social media and online comments.