The IRUK Top500 Brand Engagement 2018 is now available to read online.
The report, published in partner with Pure360 , focuses on the Top100 UK retailers that stand out for brand engagement.
RetailX, InternetRetailing’s research team examined how leading UK retailers enable their customers to engage with them and how they develop two-way conversations with their potential and existing clientele, transforming that into long-term relationships. By analysing these existing patterns, they aimed to demonstrate to other retailers what approaches work and are becoming trends as they are continuously adopted by retailers. They also looked at what was less used as time goes on and customers’ expectations and relationships evolve. As a result, the report is intended to be a useful guide for retailers of all sizes to benchmark their own approaches and understand what tools are proving the most effective for businesses across the industry.
Ian Jindal, editor-in-chief at InternetRetailing said: “Now that, as our research shows, 98% of Top500 retailers have not only Facebook and Twitter accounts, enabling customers to get in touch via social media is surely a basic requirement? Retailers at the cutting edge are those enabling shoppers to use live chats from their mobile phone app, a convenience unthought of just a few years ago.”
He continued: “Meanwhile, our research finds, most retailers now enable customers to say exactly what they think of a product that they bought via ratings and reviews. This adds up to a brave new world of transparency: browsers can see both sides of two-way conversations when they’re deciding which items to buy, and which retailer or brand to buy from.”
Across the pages of the report, we set a detailed analysis of how brands use Facebook, while our Emerging practice feature takes a look at some of the standout examples of how retailers using Pinterest to their best advantage. We also zoom into at work of Amazon , Footasylum , Holland & Barrett , Pets at Home and Wickes through a series of case studies and profiles.
InternetRetailing would like to thank knowledge partners including Hitwise that worked with RetailX to reveal that search was the most-used route for first visits to a Top500 website.