Life In Internet

Since it seems everyone is looking for more detailed (and up to date) insight into the social media user, I was happy to come across a new study released last week by our sister organization, the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association (RAMA). This consumer study was conducted by NRF partner BIGresearch as part of its Simultaneous Media Usage® Survey (SIMM® 15) in late Fall 2009.

• The survey confirms that social media users cut across every demographic – likely no great surprise to many in our industry. Among social networking sites specifically, Facebook and YouTube – for now, at least – handily beat out other sites, and their popularity cuts across age ranges.
• What prompts social media users to start an online search? Hold on to your hat: face to face communication. Runners up include cable and broadcast TV, radio, Internet advertising, and email advertising. (The study highlights how results differ for various age groups.)
• What are they searching for? Social media users report that they “regularly” search online for maps and directions (over half), as well as movies, online entertainment and product information / comparative shopping (about four out of ten). Three out of ten regularly search online for travel, clothing and shoes, and restaurant information.
• Once they’ve found what they’re looking for, how do social media users communicate with others about a service, brand or product? Hope you’re still holding on to that hat: almost three-quarters want to communicate face to face, followed by email (half) and landline or cell phone (one third). At this point, just one fifth turns to online communities and instant messaging (IM) to tell others about a service, product or brand.

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Talking about Holiday ’09 seems almost a little quaint right now – even if you somehow (miraculously?) escaped the recent frigid temperatures and snow in much of the US, I’ll bet looking ahead, not backward, is top of mind for most. That said, results of the Shop.org annual post-holiday consumer and retailer surveys (conducted in partnership with BIGresearch) are now in, and they make for some interesting reading. The consumer survey results, particularly, offer timely reminders of what is most important to them in online shopping, and not just during the holidays. 

Rather than belabor too much the great nuggets in the summary deck and data summary, I’ll let the results – spanning retailer results, merchandising, marketing, promotions, gift cards, customer service and fulfillment – speak for themselves. As usual, some of the most interesting nuggets are in the retailer comments and answers to our open ended questions:  How were shopping patterns different for Holiday ’09 vs. ’08?  What one thing will you invest in this year for Holiday 2010? (You didn’t really think you could wait until summer to start thinking about holiday again, did you?) What one thing will you do differently for Holiday 2010 than last year?  We also explored how Twitter, Facebook and social media in general impacted this past holiday season – you may recall that at this time last year, numerous retailers were still deciding whether to invest in those media at all. 

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I have been speaking to many Shop.org, RAMA, and NRF members who are excited about going to our Retail Innovation and Marketing Conference next week in San Francisco.  Some are looking forward to catching up with old business associates at the round tables and receptions, some are hoping to learn how retailers are using social media to drive business (check out this recent interview with one of our speakers), and some are excited to get insight into new consumer trends.  Probably the topic that seems to be mentioned the most is mobile.  Whether you are new to mobile and just trying to figure it all out, or if you have some experience in this rapidly growing channel, there is a general thirst of knowledge on this topic that is unprecedented.  So, not only are we covering this topic during opening keynote presentations and afternoon discussions, but we are also having a mobile boot camp on March 2.  A year’s worth of mobile learning in one day.  For Shop.org members, the price is only $295 and I guarantee it will be money well spent.  You can read an interview with Mickey Alam Kahn from Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily who is our content provider for the boot camp.

I would like to hear from folks who are heading out to San Francisco next week, what you hope to get out of this inaugural event.  What are your top priorities that you hope to achieve by the end of next week?   Let us know, and we could recommend some specific sessions, round tables, and people to make sure you connect with to help you reach your goals.   Thanks everyone and I am looking forward to seeing everyone in San Francisco. 

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The State of Retailing Online, Shop.org’s annual retailer study, is officially underway for 2010. We’re excited about this year’s study as we think it has the potential to be our best yet. On the cusp of a new decade, our partner, Forrester Research, and we decided to focus this year’s survey on topics that are top of mind for retailers right now such as social media and mobile, without forgetting about fundamentals such as online marketing and multichannel management.

Why do we believe the 2010 SORO study has the potential to be the best yet? On the one hand, this is a survey that focuses on key areas that retailers increasingly see developing from experiment to core functionality, so developing benchmarks for those is an important Shop.org initiative. Secondly, to make this research truly relevant to you, we want to report the aggregated results at a fairly granular segmentation level, especially by category / sector. To achieve this goal, we’re challenging retailers to participate this year as never before. We need a minimum of 10 (preferably more!) retailers in each category to participate so we can break out segmented results and benchmarks. So, if you ever thought your participation was optional, no more!

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The economy. Mobile. The “new” consumer. Social media. And they’re all brought together by another hot topic in retail: customer ratings and reviews. So for our next Talking With…, we reached out to entrepreneur Brett Hurt, CEO of BazaarVoice, a social commerce technology company that boasts 50 of the top 100 retailers as clients. The company powers ratings and reviews for retailers as diverse as Macy’s, The Home Depot, Cabela’s, PETCO and Overstock.com, to literally name just a few. In his Q&A, Brett shares case studies of retailers that have used reviews to create a better customer experience, how he’d convince a CEO to implement reviews on their website, tips for people who are thinking about starting their own businesses, and his best sales pitch on his hometown of Austin.

This month, Bazaarvoice will celebrate the fourth anniversary of its launch of ratings and review products. There’s no disputing that an incredible amount has happened within that time when it comes to acceptance of and technology behind ratings and reviews. Talk about the differences, then and now.

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In an ongoing effort to understand how consumers continue to adapt to the recession, we recently asked BIGresearch to explore with consumers what “big ticket” purchases they have either put off – or may never make at all. While tighter purse strings are a given these days, the results illustrate how priorities differ across consumer segments. The overall good news: retailers in the business of selling big ticket items can take heart, even if they have to be patient as some consumers delay some of those purchases for now.

A side note: unlike many of the studies that Shop.org commissions, this survey is not specific to the Web. However, the results are entirely relevant to online retailers as consumers increasingly shop across channels. (For the flip side of the coin, I recommend reading also the list of consumer “untouchables”(i.e. what they absolutely won’t give up) that STORES magazine published in this month’s issue.)

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The whole team at the NRF are putting the finishing touches on making the inaugural Retail Innovation and Marketing Conference and unforgettable experience for all attendees.  We are excited to bring brand new speakers to the NRF community and tackling some of the cutting edge issues that are impacting retail today and for the foreseeable future.

One of our new speakers that we are proud to have on our stage is Juliette Powell, the author of “33 Million People In the Room” and a true social media expert.  The NRF team just interviewed Juliette so please check it out and this can serve as a preview to her keynote presentation.

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I’m pleased to report that a very unscientific study of email response and deliverability data from the 2009 holiday season reveals that retailers were using some pretty smart strategies for generating response.

1. Volume was high, but concentrated in key buying weeks.  Over mailing is a primary cause of complaints (clicks on the Report Spam button) which depress inbox placement and deliverability for all subscribers.  Although many marketers held back some frequency outside the core season (Black Friday to Christmas Week Delivery Cut Off), many did not.  Unfortunately, this affects us all -  due to the excessive volume, many retailers saw email delivery traffic jams or deferral – where the ISPs like Yahoo! and Gmail just slowed down delivery of every message from all senders.  This can be very detrimental for time sensitive sales or alerts.

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With all eyes trained on the quarter in progress and the full year ahead, the first of the new year’s bigger shopping holidays – Valentine’s Day – is a scant two weeks away. While many consumers are still recovering from recent Holiday expenditures, this occasion’s appeal to love and friendship is proving hard for consumers ignore entirely — and online shoppers look like a particularly promising segment. 

According to an NRF survey conducted in early to mid-January by BIGresearch:

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We’re unswerving advocates of all things digital, and fancy ourselves as rather forward-thinking in social media and online communications of all flavors. But we’re also people. And as people, we like to see other people – in person. Sure, technology can offer a substitute for some face-to-face interaction, just as Tofurkey is served on many Thanksgiving tables. Much of the same nutritional content is there, and it’s a laudable effort. But compared to the real thing, it doesn’t pair nearly as well with chardonnay.

Shop.org Regional Dinners, on the other hand, offer conversation as bright and complex as a bottle of Napa Valley’s finest, insights as satisfying as a beautifully marbled porterhouse, and networking as rich as a chocolate lava cake. Regional Dinners put the “Mm” in Community and add to the “bene” in your Member Benefits (though, with the popularity of bacon-wrapped filets, they don’t contribute as evenly to the “fit” in your Benefits).

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