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Have you seen The Customer Experience Factbook?

In this 180+ page report, you'll find all the information and support you need to build a profitable, effective CX Improvement Program that spans every part of your business. You'll be able to implement and manage meaningful and profitable change, and grow your bottom line despite a slowing economy.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)
 

Social media's playing havoc with Christmas

In the run up to the retail 'golden quarter', research from Rakuten's Play.com has again highlighted the growing role that social media and sharing sites are playing in the holiday shopping period, reinforcing the importance of a true multi-channel retail strategy.

Shoppers in the UK will spend a staggering £4.6 billion in the two weeks between 3rd and 17th December 2013, according to figures from IMRG and Capgemini, so there is a lot at stake for retailers, both online and offline.

The study noted a distinct increase in the trend for 'discovery shopping', whereby shoppers are driven to purchase through social sharing sites such as Pinterest of Fancy, based on recommendations from crowd communities. For example, Play.com saw traffic coming from Pinterest increase 200% in a year.

Furthermore, web searches through mobile devices have also increased and now account for around one third of all visits to Play.com, highlighting the increasing power of this channel for product discovery. Consumer confidence in shopping through the mobile channel is on the rise, with almost one quarter (23%) of all retail sales through Play.com's 3,000 merchants taking place through a mobile device, up 53% in one year.

"Christmas is still a while away, but it's no longer a case of 'ready your website and shoppers will come'. Retailers now need to think much more carefully about the channels in which invest in and optimise; there's no one-size-fits-all model and the trends we've seen recently highlight the growing role of social discovery and multi-channel offerings in the retail mix."

Traditional social media channels are also expected to be invaluable both for product discovery and customer service during the holiday shopping season. In fact, social media drove around £2 million pounds worth of gross merchandise sales for Play.com in 2012, and the company's own research showed that shoppers who engage with the brand on Facebook go on to spend some 24% more than those who do not engage socially.


Sources: Rakuten; Play Com /
The Marketing Factbook.
Copyright © 2013 - 2026 The Marketing Factbook.

    Categorised as:

  • Knowing The Customer
  • Marketing Know-How

Have you seen The Customer Experience Factbook?

In this 180+ page report, you'll find all the information and support you need to build a profitable, effective CX Improvement Program that spans every part of your business.

You'll be able to implement and manage meaningful and profitable change, and grow your bottom line despite a slowing economy. Grab this goldmine of easily adaptable and up-to-date strategies, walk-throughs, trends, technologies, research, suppliers and partners, plus all the supporting arguments you need to build a solid CX strategy.

While most marketers could list maybe a dozen key points for improving their brand's Customer Experience (CX), the researchers and writers at The Marketing Factbook have identified FORTY main 'CX Keys' which will help you drive your customers to new levels of delight, loyalty, advocacy and profitability.

The areas in which customers have direct contact with your organization are perhaps the most obvious places in which CX improvements can be made, and this report addresses all 24 of these 'Direct CX Keys', applicable to offline and online businesses alike.

At the same time there are many other areas that indirectly affect CX (such as the supply chain, policies and processes) in which every business can make simple but far-reaching improvements. This report guides you through the problems and solutions for all 16 of these 'Indirect CX Keys', many of which are often forgotten or under-played even in the best CX strategies.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)
 
Copyright © 2001-2026 Peter J. Clark