Retailers are being challenged. To grab the attention of savvy consumers in a competitive and digital marketplace, small “best-in-class” retailers are rolling out cross-channel strategies that engage shoppers. Today’s consumers are increasingly turning to social media to find the information that influence their purchasing decisions, as well as share their own retail experiences with others.

From marketing and sales to customer service, the entire retail experience is going digital, and the success of your retail brand hinges on how you build your own presence and engage in the social space.

[source: Frost & Sullivan, 2011]

The use of social media by retailers, showing:

– 34% monitor conversations on social media
– 29% use social media to promote their store
– 20% advertise on Facebook
– 17% use social media to publicize special offers or discounts
– 16% provide services to customers on social media

Other interesting data from the study includes:

– 33% have mobile/ tablet apps or mobile Websites?
– 60% have a Website, with 36% having online ordering
– 13% get more than 10% of sales from online
– 24% offer ability to shop online and pick up in store
– 21% offer ability to return online purchases in store
– 53% believe online sales will increase in 2012, though the majority believe it will be by less than 10%. 3% believe online sales will decrease in 2012.

This last statistic suggests that 47% of respondents are in denial or don’t have a clue about much at all. It’s probably fair to say that something in the order of half the retail industry is trying to significantly change how they operate, and half continues to do what they have been doing and hope challenges such as online retailing will go away. This latter half of the industry probably won’t survive too much longer.

The social media data above does show that an increasing proportion of retailers are engaged in entirely new approaches to promotion and engaging with their customers. However there is still a long way to go. The reality is that a very large proportion of retail sales will have a social media component. Those retailers that don’t work out how to get involved are unlikely to prosper.