Importance of social commerce for retail brands

A report by 8thBridge, SOCIAL COMMERCE IQTM RETAIL 2013, highlights the social media adoption by retail brands and their social commerce strategies. As expected, most retailers have adopted Facebook and Youtube as part of their digital marketing strategy. These networks are ubiquitous among the 900 retail brands, encompassing nearly all of the Internet Retailer 2013 Top 500.

Social commerce is about product discovery.

However, there are some interesting surprises in the social line-up amongst these leading retail brands. Pinterest has grown from 78% from 2013 to 89% in 2013. Now Pinterest is near equal to Twitter, as a social marketing platform. Another interesting surprise in the adoption of Vine. About 38% of leading retail brands have begun using Vine. Retail marketing is evolving at a fast pace in this era of hype media fragmentation.

Web design planning for leading retailers
About 86% of retailers that are planning website redesigns for 2014 are planning to add social shopping features. The study found that 30% of the retail brands are planning on doing a website redesign project within the next 3 months, and 16% in the next year. Overall, nearly half of the retail brands are planning a website design project in the next 6 months. With this broad effort by retails, social login will be present on most retail websites by next year. Social logins offer a number of benefits for both customers and the retailers themselves. For one, social logins give eCommerce brands a way to validate the identity of a user quickly, helping to reduce fraud.

The top 25 companies identified in the SCIQ are:
1. Free People
2. Lancome
3. Smashbox
4. Lolly Wolly Doodle
5. Plndr
6. Target
7. Bourbon & Boots
8. Toys”R”Us
9. WWE
10. ModCloth
11. Fab.com
12. BodyBuilding.com
13. Sears Holdings
14. Diamond Candles
15. TheKnot.com
16. American Eagle Outfitters
17. Birchbox
18. Zappos.com
19. BucketFeet
20. Etsy
21. Vans
22. ShoeDazzle
23. CCS
24. JustFab
25. Vat19.com