Only 20% of shoppers found to be brand loyal
When it comes to consumers' level of brand loyalty following the recession, it appears that price still beats brand for most consumers, according to a survey by comparison shopping search engine Shop.com.
The company found that, as a result, many online merchants and retailers are responding to the brand loyalty crisis not only by offering better deals but also by expanding their forays into social networking platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
As retailers gear up for the holiday shopping season - and for what they hope will be a profitable fourth quarter - they will need to do more than simply trying to attract shoppers with deals and offers, the company suggested. In fact, it appears that retailers will have to "wow" their customers more than ever before.
An overwhelming 76% of the Shop.com marketplace merchants surveyed claimed that their customers are still price sensitive and are shopping for deals, while 24% said that their shoppers are brand loyal regardless of price.
According to Mondy Beller, senior vice president of marketing for Shop.com, "It's not surprising that many merchants, regardless of their offerings, are saying that their customers are still cautious when it comes to their wallets."
When asked what strategies retailers were finding the greatest success with when it came to online advertising, search engine marketing (31%) and email marketing campaigns (also 31%) tied at the top of the list.
But while email marketing performance remained at industry average levels for most retailers (47%), many reported seeing an improvement over the previous year (36%), and only 10% reported any decline in performance.
Almost half of the retailers surveyed (49%) reported that they were seeing an increase in their affiliate marketing programmes compared to the year before, and about 44% of merchants felt that search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies would bring in 5% - 20% of their sales, while only 24% felt that SEO would bring in 20% - 50% of their sales.
Christmas reigns supreme as the most successful seasonal time for the majority of retailers (80%), while 25% said that the Back-to-School season is more successful for them, followed by Mother's Day (21%) and Thanksgiving (20%), followed by Father's Day and Graduations (both at 15%).
Another key trend observed by the survey is the growing tendency for retailers to use social media. While it's no surprise that retailers rely on social web sites such as Facebook and Twitter to advertise products (59%), the survey found that they also use social media to communicate news (64%) and even to address customer service needs (34%), while giving customers a forum for discussion (43%).
Facebook topped the list of most retailers' primary social media tools (82%), followed by Twitter (67%) and blogging (54%). Only 9% of the retailers claimed not to use social media at all.
With respect to mobile marketing, a large proportion of retailers (52%) said that, while they may not use the channel now, they have plans to do so in the future. While 13% said they currently use mobile marketing, some 35% said they do not and do not plan to in the future.
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