Retailers have lost interest in accruing Facebook likes for their products, new research suggests, with the number of IREU Top500 retailers offering the capability dramatically down year-on-year.
InternetRetailing’s research arm RetailX found in its annual IREU Top500 report that the proportion of surveyed retailers across the EEA offering the ability to like products on their sites fell by 25%.
The figure fell to 17% from 22% last year.
Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark saw particularly marked drops, with the figure down by 42, 40, 23 and 23% respectively. However, in Greece, Hungary and Portugal the number rose by 25, 7 and 1% respectively.
The report says: “The reason [for the drop] is unclear. It may be linked to changes in the popularity of certain social networks or possibly privacy concerns – for many in the digitally-savvy millennial group, systems such as Snapchat, with its limited accessibility, can be preferable to the permanence of Facebook.”
At the same time, the use of other merchandising techniques increased, with the number of retailers supporting product ratings increasing by 9 percent. Meanwhile, the use of reviews grew 4 percent.
This article draws on research which features in our recent IREU Top500 report, providing in-depth analysis and assessment of the biggest European retailers based on a set of key metrics.
You can access the full report after registering as a full member. Figures are continually updated throughout the year and may differ from those in the report.
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