How Retailers Are Using Social Media - Facebook

Facebook has come a long way since it launched in 2004, for college students only. Now, the social network, which seems omnipresent featuring pages on any subject imaginable, is a fruitful business tool and integral to the marketing efforts of many retailers around the world. 

Facebook remains the most popular social network with 845 million active users, 47% of which earn on average $50,000-$99,999 per year. Also taking note that on average, each user visits the site 40 times per month, around 23 minutes per visit, and more than half of total Facebook users are women, it suffices to say that Facebook holds great opportunities for retailers.  By presenting a brand to Facebook users in an inherently social setting where they can interact and share favourite products and brands with friends, retailers target Facebook users in a relaxed state, where they are likely to be more receptive to new products introduced to them, especially by friends. 

The interesting thing about marketing and selling through Facebook as opposed to traditional television advertisements is that it’s much cheaper and much less-intrusive, though its highly casual nature makes people much more receptive to it.  Facebook’s core features provide several ways for retailers to reach out to potential customers, with the focal purpose seeming to lie heavily on building relationships with them, where in Britain alone people spend on average a half hour longer per day on Facebook than they do watching television, and 73% of the British prefer to be browsing Facebook than watching television. Some big name retailers have done a great job of capitalizing on Facebook’s primary features to introduce their brand, promote new products, and stimulate purchase behaviour:

Starbucks – Starbucks hosts a regularly updated Facebook page that shares information on current company initiatives, new product releases, and promotions. What is novel about Starbucks’ Facebook page is the Starbucks Card app, featured in a mini tab. By swapping basic information with the app, Facebook users are able to manage their Starbucks Card and Rewards – basic and boring, right? The app also accesses the birthdays of a user’s Facebook friends, and sorts them into a sub-group so that a user can easily send a fun Starbucks eGift Card. Of course, all other friends can also be sent eCards by removing the birthday filter.

Old Spice – With a revamp of the Old Spice brand featuring “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” came a shift from Old Spice being the cologne and after-shave dad uses, to the cologne and after shave every girl wants her man to use. The outcome was a quirky, obscure ad campaign that started on television and percolated to all things Old Spice, including their Facebook page. Old Spice utilizes a Facebook store tab that links to the respective page on Old Spice eCommerce site. The interesting thing about this Facebook store, however, is that there is no trace of after-shave or cologne being sold in it. Rather, it features paraphernalia building on the new, highly popular theme including t-shirts, flasks, belts, beer sleeves and hats boasting clever phrases, allowing men to not only smell like an Old Spice man, but dress like one, too.

Stila – Stila Cosmetics utilizes the Facebook to its advantage by regularly running contests wherein a Facebook user must interact with the Stila Facebok page in order to enter. Subscribers to the Stila e-newsletters will receive information about Stila contests, wherein they must click through the email to the Stila’s Facebook page. Once there, the Facebook user must then ‘Like’ Stila to be able to access the entry form.  In the example below of a past email contest, Stila redirects recipients to post their review of their favourite Stila product on Facebook in order to enter the contest.

Smashbox – The Smashbox Facebook page focuses on building relationships between Smashbox products and the Facebook users that Like them. Instead of selling products, or promoting them in an overtly commercial way, Smashbox presents its followers with fun activities to interact with the brand. Currently on the Smashbox’s Facebook account are pages entitled “Click, You’re It!” wherein users can use their favourite photos to create a custom magazine layout, and “Star in your own Smashbox video!” with the present theme being a review on Smashbox’s new BB Cream.  An interesting extension to the video activity was that Smashbox partnered with a popular fashion blogger who held a complementary contest to win $300 worth of Smashbox Cosmetics by creating a video on Smashbox’s Facebook page, then Tweeting it to her, thereafter. 

C&A – A fascinating take on using Facebook to drive sales comes from European retailer C&A, who use Facebook to help their brick-and-mortar stores, rather than their eCommerce site. C&A synched their Facebook page in real-time with counters displaying each item’s Facebook Likes on the hangers of merchandise in their Brazil locations. This allowed shoppers to see which items were most popular globally. The assumption is that the more popular an item appears to be, the more likely shoppers are to try it on, and subsequently buy.

To learn more about social media tactics leading online retailers are using to engage consumers and drive additional revenue, download the new whitepaper, "20 Social Media Tactics for Online Retailers".