Social media influence on retailers and consumers

With the current changing fashion landscape and retail overhaul, insiders and trend analysts have been looking at the way the sudden social media drive has been affecting retail and consumers. In a new report by Shoppercentric, an independent

agency specialising in shopper research, just 9% of shoppers follow brands through social media and only 6% actually make a purchase. The overriding message? There are opportunities for retailers and consumers through changing technology and communication but it is not all as straightforward as it might seem.

Out of the survey conducted, 37% of respondents said they didn't see the point of brands using social media, and 18% said the same of retailers.

There were also changes between the way men and women shopped, which the report called for brands to assess. 38% of men have a smartphone (compared to 29% of women) and 60% of women use Facebook compared to only 52% of men.

Interestingly though men have been far quicker to catch onto the mobile apps idea of shopping, whilst women preferred purchasing through social networking.

Research has also shown that consumers prefer to visit actually retailers websites rather than shopping directly through brand websites. Just over a third of 16-24 year olds admitted to already following brands on social media, 29% of 25-34 year olds, 18% of 35-44 year olds, and only 8% of 45-54 year olds.

'The use of social networking and mobile commerce in the business context is still in its early stages of development,' comments Danielle Pinnington, managing director at ShopperCentric. 'However, as these figures, are suggesting, the gender and age divides between these social and mobile platforms could be put to good use by retailers to better target and engage their customers.' She continues, 'retailers need to work on the basis that they have to seek out these connections rather than assuming shoppers will come to them.'

The report also concluded that the biggest reason for shoppers to follow a brand on social media was to feel part of a group, whilst 43% thought it was because everyone else was.
And perhaps unsurprisingly Facebook was the most popular form of social media. One of the most innovative uses of Facebook was by global discount retailer IKEA – for instance a campaign in which photographs of IKEA storerooms were posted on the network and whichever user was first to tag themselves on an item would win it.

It seems retailers need to really look into how they interact social media into their business and how they can harness it as 70% of customers use applications like Twitter and Social Media to make complaints.