From a social marketing perspective, 2012 will be remembered for a number of significant acquisitions: Facebook snapping up Instagram, Google purchasing social marketing company Wildfire, Salesforce buying Buddy Media, and of course Oracle jumping more into the social space with the purchase of Involver and Virtue. When all was said and done, Facebook, Google, Salesforce, and Oracle spent over $2 billion on acquisitions that focused on social.
In between these acquisitions came social related product updates from Amazon and Facebook that put social gifting near the top of the list for emerging social retailing trends. While there are dozens of use cases and intriguing case studies, RNG DIGITAL focused on three social trends that will continue to affect retail in 2013 and beyond: mobile, gifting, and social TV:
Social & mobile continue to dovetail:
Social and mobile strategies have quickly begun to converge as users continue to migrate to their phones in order to search. Over 60 percent of Facebook’s users access the site through a mobile phone. Services like Spindle aim to use location, time, and key words to filter the right social messaging to users’ mobile devices. Additionally, RetailMeNot, an online couponing site, launched the latest version of its iPhone app, which includes geo-fencing technology in order to push out relevant offers based on location.
2013: Retailers like Walmart have already begun to localize content through social networks like Facebook and geo-fence stores for a more personal shopping experience via a smartphone. Look for Walmart and other retailers to continue to build social strategies that dovetail with mobile strategies throughout 2013, both through native services or third party applications.
Social gifting:
Social gifting was a topic that garnered more attention in the latter half of 2012 as Facebook rolled out Facebook Gifts and Amazon announced its Friends and Family Gifting platform. In addition to these services, gifting services like Wrapp and Wantful continue to build out and expand their gifting options with new funding and services.
2013: RNG DIGITAL expects both Facebook and Amazon to significantly evolve their gifting platforms to be both more personal and relevant for the user and gift recipient. Currently, Facebook has a significant amount of self-branding throughout the gifting process and is still growing its retail partner base. Amazon’s Friends and Family relies on friends’ Facebook data for input on gifting suggestions. This isn’t as powerful as the retailer’s own recommendation engine, which is based on more granular data that reflects the shopper’s habits (click-stream, glance views, etc.), but has the potential to become more accurate in making recommendations in the future.
We also expect to see third party services like Wrapp and Wantful to expand into new geographies with new retail partnerships.
Social/Connected TV:
Twitter hash tags in commercials and even on TV shows are becoming more prevalent, to a point where it’s odd not to see the social tool at the end of a 30 second spot or at the bottom right hand corner of your favorite show. This is just one of several ways social marketing has bled into TV.
Additionally, there is a growing ecosystem of services from Amazon to Netflix that complement regular programing channels. Finally, we are seeing up and coming services like Stevie receive more attention, as they help blend social media content with a television experience.
2013: Retailers can no longer look at TV as a siloed advertising platform that doesn’t affect purchase decisions. Through both the TV and tablets/smartphones, users engage with content in a more dynamic way than ever before, sharing favorite moments, quotes, styles, and trends.
Retail & Brand Implications:
Beyond dovetailing strategies, enhanced gifting platforms and more connected TVs, RNG DIGITAL has identified key social trends and implications for retailers to watch in 2013:
- Increased use of in-store social shopping tools
- Targeted promotions through various social networks
- Rich media for fan access across social networks
- Seamless social sign-on for ecommerce sites
2013 will bring more acquisitions, evolved analytics to help enhance insights gleaned from social monitoring and continued market testing for new ways to reach and engage shoppers. Most retailers now have a plan in place for how to address these strategies and those that do not are quickly falling behind and missing an opportunity to engage with shoppers online.
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