Retailers push social media, want bigger wallet share for Christmas

Filed under: Internet, Competitive strategy, Dell (DELL), Starbucks (SBUX), Marketing and advertising, Next big thing, Target Corp. (TGT), Best Buy (BBY)

Once upon a time, retailers measured success by the number of people walking by in the mall, how many entered the store, the percentage they spent, and basket size. Now, a world of zeroes and ones has changed their perspective entirely. Social media is expected to be the star during the coming holiday season, with retailers pushing Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter content to get in front of consumers and affect either online or in-store purchases. Smaller Christmas budgets are expected, so the fight is on to garner as large a share as possible of a shrinking pie.

Of course, nobody would come out and say, "Social media is nonsense, and I'm not getting anything for my investment." So, when the likes of Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX), JCPenney (NYSE: JCP), and Target (NYSE: TGT) say that social media is connecting them with their customers and leading to more effective campaigns and product launches, do take it with a grain of salt. What can't be ignored, however, is that they're committing more resources to social media marketing, even though it's still far too soon to tell if it will be effective.

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Retailers push social media, want bigger wallet share for Christmas originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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