1. Social media use by retailers & Consumers; Adoption & Success factors
Dr. Jesse Weltevreden
Centre for Applied Research on Economics & Management,
Hogeschool van Amsterdam, University of Applied Sciences

2. Outline
Opportunities & Strategies
Research questions & Methodology
Adoption & Use
Success & Consumer attitudes
Concluding remarks

3. opportunities & strategies

4. Sales & customer contact channels
Interactive TV
Emergent
Social Media
Mobile App
(Mobile) Website
Telephone
Modern Convenience
Store
Catalogue
Traditional
Source: Adapted from Head London (2011)

5. Examples of social media use by retailers
Limited Special Offers
Daily Discount codes
Social adds
Integrated webshop
Location Based Social Media
Product information/Tips (Forum)
Webcare (Customer Service)
Source:
HvA (2011)

6. Use of twitter by retailers*: trial & error and lack of strategy
yesterday I went with my dad to a conference and they keep recommending it, so let’s start using Twitter
It seems that our customers are using Twitter more and more often. This is confirmed by the following research:
Never twittered before, but my wife did, so let’s see how it works
For the first time on Twitter. I’m curious what it brings!
* Some tweets have been translated from Dutch to English
Source: HvA (2011)

7. Research questions & Methodology
Having presented some

8. Research questions Retail perspective
To what extent are retailers using social media?
Which factors influence the use of social media by retailers?
How successful are retailers on social media sites (in terms of no. of followers)?
Consumer perspective
To what extent are consumers following companies in general and retailers in particular via social media?
What are the attitudes and preferences of consumers with regard to commercial use of social media?
Which factors influence consumers’ choice of following companies via social media?

9. Methodology Retail dataset Consumer dataset N 5,630 (online) retailers
Data collection
Web mining & Content analysis
period
April 2010 through March 2011
Dependent
variables
‘Use of (specific) social media’ and
‘Number of followers per social
media account’
Independent
Firm characteristics (
e.g.
type, size, sector )
& Online characteristics (
e.g., online
experience, online popularity
Method
Descriptive and (logistic) regression
analysis )
800 internet
users (incl. 600 social media users)
Online survey
May 2010
‘Use of (specific) social media’,
‘Following
companies via social media’,
and
‘Preferences towards
commercial use of
social media’
Socio demographics, Household
characteristics, Online characteristics (
e.g.,
internet use and social media use
Descriptive and (logistic
regression
analysis

10. adoption & use
Having presented some

11. Adoption of social media by retailers: Twitter most popular among retailers but…
Source: Weltevreden et al. (2011)

12. Adoption of social media by consumers: …relatively few Dutch consumers use twitter (actively)!
Source: Weltevreden et al. (2011)

13. Adoption of social media by retailers: adoption varies among retail sub sectors
Source: Weltevreden et al. (2011)

14. use of social media by retailers: Profiles of adopters and non-adopters*
Independents
Retailers
that
use
social media
Retailers that
don’t use
social
media
Gender CEO / Owner
Female CEO / Owner
Type of company 1
International
retailers
Type of company 2
‘Click -
and
Mortar’ and ‘Virtual
retailers’
Company size
Large(r) retailers
Retail category
‘Department stores’, ‘Home
entertainment’, ‘Paramedical
items’,
‘Apparel & Shoes’, ‘Services’, ‘Food &
Drinks’
Online experience
(no. of years a
n URL)
Up to 10.5 years a de
creased chance,
and after that it increases
Size
website
(no. of pages)
Large(r) websites
Online popularity
(in terms
of no. of
visitors and inlinks)
High( er
) online popularity er -
Male CEO / Owner
National retailers
Brick
and
Mortar
retailers
Small(
) retailers
‘Do It
Yourself items’ and ‘Pets,
Flowers & Plants’
Up to 10.5 years an
increased
chance, and after that it decreases
) websites
Low( )
online popularity
* Based on a logistic regression analysis
Source: Weltevreden et al. (2011)

15. success & consumer attitudes

16. Following companies via social media: twitter most popular medium for following companies among consumers
Source: Weltevreden et al. (2011)

17. number of followers on social media accounts of retailers most retailers have fewer followers on LinkedIn, Twitter, Hyves & Facebook than an average user
* For YouTube ‘video views’ are a better success measure than ‘number of followers’
Source: Weltevreden et al. (2011)

18. Attitudes towards commercial use of social media: consumers are sceptical
Source: Weltevreden et al. (2011)

19. Consumers that do find social media (very) useful for companies
usefulness of social media for companies according to consumers: a Profile*
Independents
Consumers that do find social media (very) useful for companies
Gender
Females
Age
The younger, the higher the chance
Education ̶
Type of employer
Commercial company
Type of job
‘Management’, ‘ICT’, ‘Research’, and ‘Marketing & Communication’
No of hours paid work
The lower, the higher the chance
Household size
‘1-person households’, ‘2-person households’
Social media experience 1
(no. of years active on social media sites)
The more years active on social media, the lower the chance
Social media experience 2
(no. social media sites that the respondent uses)
The more social media sites one uses, the higher the chance
Use of forums
Does not use forums
Use of Facebook
Does not use Facebook
* Based on a logistic regression analysis
Source: HvA (2011)

20. The content that consumers prefer on social media accounts of commercial companies
Twitter
Facebook
Weblogs
Forums
Promotional offers
47%
27%
23%
20%
Product information
26%
37%
24%
21%
Information about contests
29%
15%
13%
Companies’ reactions towards online enquiries of customers
25%
31%
Company news / press releases
32%
14%
Movies and Pictures
19%
40%
22%
10%
Source: HvA (2011), Weltevreden et al. (2011)

21. concluding remarks

22. Concluding remarks
(Effective) social media use is still in its infancy
Mismatch between consumers and retailers with regard to the use of Twitter
Small retailers are lacking behind
Brick-and-Mortar retailers are lacking behind
Use of social media (largely) varies among retail sub sectors
The majority of the retailers struggle to gather followers via social media
Consumers are sceptical about the use of social media by companies
The content that consumers prefer on corporate social media accounts, varies per social media site

23. Centre for Applied Research on Economics & Management
The end
Dr. Jesse Weltevreden
Centre for Applied Research on Economics & Management