Although there’s been a lot of publicity recently about social media, few retailers really go beyond the hype to seamlessly integrate social media on their website. Effectively leveraging social media leads to brand loyalty and an increase in conversions. When it comes to fashion, social media is the best accessory!
Many retailers view social media as a tool to communicate with customers, without realising the untapped potential of consumer-generated content. Integrating social media information on your website enhances the online experience for consumers, influences purchasing behaviour and can lead to repeat visits.
So what is consumer-generated content? This comes from a variety of sources: sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Google+; or online newsletters, forums, blogs, ratings, reviews and podcasts.
With major overseas retailers, such as ASOS, Topshop and Zara hitting our shores, Australian labels are feeling the pressure. However there are many local retailers who are leveraging social media to their advantage and keeping up with the competition.
Australian online surf and fashion label SurfStitch is just one such example. With over 30,000 Facebook fans (and counting), the company cleverly integrates social media with its website to display promotions, sales, striking product shots and merchandising. According to SurfStitch managing director Lex Pedersen, after integrating SLI’s strategies, SurfStitch found its average sales increased by 15 per cent and site visitors were spending 25 percent more time browsing.
“This is especially great for us to see, as it means customers are enjoying our site much more than they were before, and we’re proud of that,” Pedersen said.
Pedersen touches on a valuable point – consumers enjoy (and have come to expect) social media integration when they shop online. It’s a way to interact with your brand and shape the user experience. There’s nothing quite like the fashion and apparel industry to really get people talking. Consumers are passionate, vocal and ready to share their experiences and strong opinions.
Tap into this public enthusiasm with simple integration techniques and your customers will actually want to help generate the buzz and excitement around your brand. Make it as easy as possible for them with some simple strategies.
Interaction can be enhanced by showcasing social media content in your site search and even allowing social ‘likes’ to influence the ranking of your results. You can easily add search to your Facebook page so your followers can search your site without ever leaving the ever-popular social network. Additionally, comprehensive site search providers should offer reporting capabilities so that you can monitor how the activity on Facebook impacts your conversion rate.
Depending on your website, there are varying ways to effectively present this content, whether on separate tabs or integrated with your main search results. Some solutions, also allow you to set your search ranking algorithm to factor in the number of ‘likes’ a product has so that the more popular items rank closer to the top of the returned results.
The easiest way to integrate social media on your site is to display Facebook ‘like’, Google +1, Twitter or YouTube buttons beneath individual search results so people can share their preferences for specific items right from the results page. You can also display the number of ‘likes’ and ‘pluses’ each result has received, to showcase an item’s popularity.
Social media is not all about Facebook and Twitter. Make your site social! User ratings and reviews are proven to generate more purchasing activity. At a minimum, you can include star ratings in search results and allow people to filter and sort results based on the ratings. Searching by reviews will also help customers to filter products by their personal interests and/or demographic.
Understanding your consumers is key to standing out from the crowded retail space online. Looking at the Facebook pages of Supre or General Pants is the perfect example of how shoppers love to share their opinions about the brand, its products and fashion in general. Social media is the perfect way to gain insight into your customer and shape your retail strategy.
The power of social media means you can not only allow customers to interact with your brand in new and exciting ways, but can also combine the revenue generating power of search with the massive influence of social networking sites The key is seamless integration and understanding what will work for you.
Mark Brixton is country manager, Australasia at site search and user-generated SEO solutions company, SLI Systems. www.sli-systems.com.au