06 May How The Top UK and Dutch Online Retailers Do Social Media

It’s safe to assume that all the top online retailers are very active in social media.

This is certainly true of the top players in the UK and the Netherlands, but what exactly are they doing in social media, and more specifically, how are they engaging their fans and customers?

Ranking Retailers in Social Media

For residents of the UK, names like Currys, Asda, and Tesco are household names. In the Netherlands, the names are Blokker, Bol, and Albert Heijn, to name a few.

In two separate benchmark reports published at the end of March 2015, the top 20 online retailers from both countries were scored on their online promotion strategies and ranked accordingly. It is clear, that a large part of their success comes from their activities in social media.

So what are they doing well? And is there any room for improvement?

Competition is everything (almost)

In the UK, 17 of the top 20 online retailers are using competitions in social media. The vast majority of these competitions are run on the respective Facebook pages, with a giveaway being used to drive engagement. The UK study found that the companies were still able to create huge responses despite the average prize value being relatively low.

Based on the findings of the report, competitions seem to be a good way to create social media engagement, and a general buzz around the brand, but they fall short of converting into actual sales.

Interestingly, an earlier report found that 26% of UK consumers said that they prefer instant reward promotions to competitions. Many are happy to take part in competitions, but the majority want to find out if they have won something straight away.

Only one online retailer (Asda) ran an instant reward promotion during the study.

This is definitely something for the big online retailers to consider. Instant reward promotions can drive sales by rewarding participants with gift vouchers that are only redeemable in their respective online store. The social ROI of such promotions is clear: engagement on social channel -> drive traffic to online store -> convert to sales.

In the Netherlands, sweepstakes and other were not quite as popular. All of the top 20 online retailers were active in social media, but only half of them ran competitions during the study. Despite this discrepancy, the Dutch scored higher on average for their promotions strategy in social media.

This would suggest that online retailers in the Netherlands have a more varied approach to social media engagement when it comes to promotions. Nevertheless, none of the top 20 ran any instant reward promotions during the study. Presumably, the attention span of Dutch consumers is just as short as that of UK consumers (and everyone else), and they are as driven by instant gratification. Online retailers in the Netherlands would also be well advised to revisit their promotions strategies in social media. Customer engagement in social media is one thing, but in the retail sector in particular, it’s sales that count.

Social media is about interaction, isn’t it?

Interactive promotions and games were by no means top of the list for online retailers in social media. However, two of the top five Dutch online retailers (Blokker and Coolblue) were running ongoing interactive promotions on their Facebook pages.

Coolblue was particularly creative on its Facebook page with an interactive promotion that asked its customers to make something out of its delivery boxes. Customers made all sorts of items, from guitars to chairs, and posted photos on Coolblue’s Facebook page.

But it doesn’t end there. Coolblue then makes their own version of the creation and posts a photo alongside the customer’s original photo.

To support the promotion, Coolblue shares this interactive promotion on all its other channels except email.

In the UK, only one online retailer used an interactive promotion on its social channels. Currys PC World was ranked number one in the top 20 online retailers, and judging by its activity in social media, it is clear why.

Currys ran a series of interactive promotions called #SpringPins. The promotion demanded quite a bit of effort from the customer, but it cleverly directed them from one Currys social media channel to another, as well as a visit to their website.

The actual game part of the promotion was positioned on Currys’ Pinterest channel, where customers had to create a board and pin various pieces of a puzzle. The pieces of the puzzle were hidden in various other Currys’ channels, and customers had to look through the channels to find them. The game was promoted primarily via Currys’ Facebook page and Twitter account.

These interactive promotions are clearly all about engagement and nurturing, and as such they are first class. The Coolblue strategy seems to focus on existing customer relationships primarily in Facebook, but also encourages new customers to get on board quickly. In the best case scenario, Coolblue’s hands-on interactive promotions strategy can even create brand ambassadors.

Currys’ multi-channel approach seems to aim for new customers, giving them as much opportunity as possible to interact with the brand. The Currys promotion also entices new customers by rewarding participants with a bundle of tech goods from their product range.

Show me the money

Vouchers and coupons are undeniably the kings of online promotions.

In a previous study, 74% of UK consumers said that they want to receive promotions in the form of vouchers and coupons. Even more telling is the fact that 87% of those asked said that they had used a voucher or coupon in the last six months.

There is no arguing with those statistics. The question remains, however, are the top online retailers offering vouchers and coupons in social media?

Surprisingly, they’re not.

Out of the top 20 companies in both the UK and the Netherlands, only one company offered vouchers and coupons in its social media channels.

The UK travel giant, Thomas Cook, was the only company to post a voucher on its Facebook page.

The voucher was worth £200, and the response to the promotion was impressive with over 100 shares on Facebook and nearly 2000 people claiming the voucher.

Overall, the lack of voucher and coupon promotions in social media is surprising. A third of UK consumers said that they wanted to receive offers in social media, but the major online retailers are evidently not taking this into consideration in their promotions strategies.

Social media is primarily social

So what conclusions can we draw from these reports.

Well, it’s important to note that the reports focus on the promotions strategies of the online retailers. Naturally, online retailers are doing lots of other things in social media other than offering promotions, and that’s the way it should be. Facebook pages would rapidly lose their appeal if they were simply filled with promotion after promotion.

Social media is, and should remain, social first. A good mixture of entertainment, information, and promotions is key for success in social media, and most of the top online retailers in both the UK and the Netherlands appear to be following that formula. That said, it is clear from the reports that some companies could benefit from increasing promotions and offers in their social channels.

Facebook is still the major social channel for virtually all the companies in the reports, and for the most part, they are using it extremely well for engagement. How much companies want to push promotions on their social channels is ultimately for them to decide themselves. There is undoubtedly space for these kinds of activities, and Facebook lends itself well to various types of promotions. It is unlikely, however, that Facebook will ever turn into a full-blown ecommerce channel, although recent manoeuvres suggest a definite move in that direction.

In this post I have only looked at the social media aspects of the two benchmark reports. The full reports contain much more insight into the broader promotions strategies of the top 20 UK online retailers and the top 20 Dutch online retailers.