M&S tops the league of UK supermarket brands on Instagram before Christmas

M&S is the clear winner on Instagram in the run-up to Christmas, data from social media analytics platform Iconosquare has revealed.

Marks and Spencer has a huge presence on the photo-sharing application with 497,000 followers, with Waitrose (173,000 followers), Sainsbury’s (109,000 followers) and Tesco (108,000 followers) trailing behind.

Despite Aldi taking on high-end rivals like M&S this year by adding 200 premium products to its Christmas range, Aldi only has 21,400 Instagram followers.

By comparison, another popular discount supermarket, Lidl, has three times more followers than Aldi at 70,200 followers on Instagram compared to the likes of Morrisons (34,600) and Coop UK Food (11,200).

The results come hot on the heels of a wider study by Iconsquare across all UK retail brands, which found that Burberry , Primark and Alexander McQueen are the most influential UK brands on Instagram in 2016.

The rise in importance of Instagram comes as more retailers see the power of images and social media combined. As Jason Miller pointed out last week, “For retailers, images are the first thing that grabs a shopper’s attention, driving that first impression of the brand and the products. Being able to provide consumers with high-quality and engaging product images – with multiple and alternate views and zooms – is one of the key ways to increase conversions. This value is outlined in many different tests such as this VWO A/B test, showing larger images increased conversion by 9 percent, while decreasing returns by accurately reflecting colors and fit.”

Instagram is also becoming increasingly important as mobile shifts the emphasis from omni-channel retailing to omni-channel engagement, as pointed out in this week’s guest comment from Kevin Kimber, Head of Cloud UKI at SAP.

Top 10 influential UK supermarkets on Instagram