February 16, 2012

Grocery stores are making up for lost time in engaging customers on Facebook, with customer interaction on the site growing faster than for any other category of Australian business, a new snapshot shows.

In the three weeks to the end of January, retail grocery and beverage sellers ranked eight out of 12 industries for Facebook fan numbers, with 374,000 fans in the category, according to a report released today by social media consultancy The Online Circle.

Yet the engagement rate for grocery retailers was the highest of any of the categories examined in the report. The study's engagement rate is derived from the Facebook "People Talking About" counter, then divided by the number of fans for a given brand. For the grocery stores category that measure was 10 per cent, compared to 2 per cent for snack foods, 2.2 per cent for fashion, and 1.6 per cent for beverages.
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"Promotions are being used to garner fans and engagements," says The Online Circle's Alan Long.

"With the massive growth experienced by Woolworths during January their engagement rate was extraordinarily high," he said. Woolworths' engagement rate was 25.9 per cent.

Woolworth's fans grew by 74.1 per cent or 50,461 fans in the three-week report period from January 10 to January 31, overtaking Coles, which grew 4.5 per cent or 4360.

Mr Long said Woolworths lured fans in through photo competitions during the month, offering free groceries for the winners.

GroceryRun.com.au, a company just a fraction of the size of publicly-listed Woolworths, was ranked third for fan numbers in the grocery category, with 49,700.

"Reflecting the ongoing challenge to traditional brands across all industries, the grocery market newcomer, GroceryRun.com.au, has captured a strong fan base in a relatively short amount of time leveraging effectively off their sister brand, the ever-popular CatchoftheDay," said Mr Long.

Other strong contenders in the grocery segment were Queen Victoria Market with only 6500 fans but an engagement rate of 20.5 per cent, and getwinesdirect.com with 13,000 fans, and an engagement rate of 13.9 per cent.

As consumers increasingly look online or to mobile devices to find and compare products, traditional retailers have been forced to re-think their marketing and advertising strategies, with many of them turning to social media. At the same time, online-only sellers have entered the fray, ratcheting up the level of competition.

Industry analysis group Forrester Research estimates that Australian-based online retail sales will nearly double from $16.9 billion in 2009 to $33.3 billion in 2015.

The Online Circle's social media report notes that some industries, such as snack foods and beverages, have an easier time of connecting with consumers online.

The largest category represented on Facebook was snackfood brands with 2.2 million fans.

Pringles Australia had almost half a million fans, while ice-cream Streets Cornetto has the highest engagement rate at 12.3 per cent.

As a category, fashion retailers ranked in second spot with a combined 1.9 million fans.

Women's clothing brand Supre had the most fans with 374,000 and Lorna Jane go the most people talking.

After fashion came beverages with 1.6 million fans, led by Coca-Cola and its 694,000 fans.

In terms of engagement, banks fared well with 5.2 per cent, while their fans grew 9.1 per cent to 153,00 in the three-week period, reflecting in part the mingling of social media with banking services.

Within the category, Commonwealth Bank had the most fans, with 103,000, most likely aided by the Kaching iPhone app, which lets customers pay friends through Facebook. The bank said 100,000 people had downloaded the Kaching App in the past two months and that Facebook payments using the iPhone software accounted for more than 10 per cent of Kaching transfers.

National Australia Bank-backed UBank had 11,700 fans. NAB itself had 10,500 fans, with Westpac's Bank of Melbourne having 10,400. Westpac had 1600 fans.

Fonte: RetailNet Group / The Sydney Morning Herald