Introducing the All-New Internet Retailer 2015 Social Media 500

Introducing the All-New Internet Retailer 2015 Social Media 500

Ranking America's 500 Largest E-Retailers Based on Social Commerce Sales and Revealing Why Social Media Marketing Is A Game-Changer for E-Retailers If there's one lesson e-retailing marketers should take away from the web sales year just completed, it is this: social media is now revolutionizing the marketing of e-commerce just as the web revolutionized retailing more than a decade ago. It's a game-changing technology, and the research contained in Internet Retailer's all-new2015 Social Media 500 shows in stark relief that some web merchants understand that and are thriving on social media, while others are lagging behind and losing ground in the newest, fastest-growing and most impactful e-commerce marketing platform. Social Media: A New Requirement for E-Commerce Marketing The voluminous data in the 2015 Social Media 500 clearly reveal that advertising retail brands on social media has suddenly changed from being a luxury for retailers with extra cash to spend to an absolute necessity for all e-retailers looking to grow their businesses. There are three reasons for this: First, social networks now command 20% of the time American consumers spend online, according to comScore Inc. Second, social networks are increasingly segmenting their user bases, giving e-retailers the ability finely target their brand messages in a way that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. And third, Facebook—the mother of all social networks—just this month changed its rules to greatly limit free brand promotional messages that Facebook users see on their news feeds. The only way retailers can skirt those limits is to pay Facebook for advertising. This new research from Internet Retailer reveals that many more e-commerce marketers last year began to fully grasp the value of expanding and retaining their customer base through social media content that connects with and influences customers to act. As a result, more e-commerce operators are investing in social media marketing than ever before—upping the digital marketing ante for all e-retailers in the process—according to data in the just–released 2015 Social Media 500. And, the research shows, this investment is social marketing is delivering some impressive growth rates in traffic to retail sites and improved conversion rates as well.

Key Facts from the 2015 Social Media 500 The 2015 Social Media 500 highlights the major trends in the use of social media by the web merchants. As a group, the 500 web merchants ranked as the leaders in social marketing and commerce grew their social footprint dramatically in 2014 as they:

This increased traffic and sales from Facebook and other social networks didn't come cheap. The 42 merchants who divulged their social ad spending to Internet Retailer's research team spent a total of $17.9 million a month on social media advertising in 2014, up a stunning 144% from the prior year. These data illustrate the primary conclusion of the Social Media 500: Social media are having a profound impact on e-commerce marketing and sales, but the days of brand names benefitting from free social media exposure are over. Bigger social media investments are paying rich dividends for the e-retailers making them. For Ranger Up, a small web-only merchant specializing in apparel for veterans and members of the military, a better than 10-fold increase in social ad spending last year resulted in 46% of its 2014 retail site traffic coming from social networks, making it the top-ranked e-retailer measured on that metric. Wayfair.com, a web-only home furnishings retailer that that ranks as the country's 45th largest retail site, nearly doubled its monthly traffic from social networks last year to 784,110, and as a result achieved a better than three-fold increase in its 2014 social commerce sales. While these younger companies are perhaps naturally drawn to a newer form of digital marketing, the 2015 Social Media 500 identifies much more established merchants that are aggressively pursuing social media marketing, even as the managements of other traditional retailers have all but ignored it. Macy's, the largest department store chain and the 8th largest e-retailer, grew its 2014 social commerce web sales by 29% and its traffic from social networks by 37%. Macy's benefitted from a very successful 2014 holiday ad campaign on Facebook, leveraging the social network's ad units—particularly video ads—and unique targeting capabilities. Similarly, Nordstrom, the country's 24th largest web merchant, expanded its social commerce sales by 41% last year and now ranks 9th among all web merchants on that score. Get Exclusive Details on Social Media Marketing & Sales The Internet Retailer 2015 Social Media 500 contains details on e-commerce social media marketing and sales that provide e-retail marketers with valuable information on what their competitors are doing in social media, clearly identifying which are surging ahead and which are falling behind the curve. The 72 social media metrics measured for each web merchant ranked in the Social Media 500 include their 2014 web traffic and traffic growth from each of the major social networks used by retailers (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube), their social commerce web sales for 2014 and 2013, their investment in social media advertising in both years and their percentage of total web sales generated from their social network activity. All of this data has been organized by Internet Retailer's research team in a series of 13 tables that make competitive analysis quick and easy for marketers. These include: A list of all 500 web merchants ranked by the percentage of traffic from social media and containing data on social commerce sales and growth rates for 2014. The social media leaders in each of 15 separate merchandise categories. Social media advertising spending in 2014 vs. 2013 for 42 web merchants who revealed that data to Internet Retailer. 2014 data and rankings of the Top 25 e-retailers based on their number of Facebook followers and 25 fastest-growing merchants in terms of Facebook followers. Top 25 web merchants based on Twitter followers and 25 fastest-growing merchants on Twitter. Top 50 e-retailers based on their average re-tweets. Top 25 and fastest-growing 25 web merchants on Pinterest. Top 25 web merchants based on Twitter followers and 25 fastest-growing merchants on Twitter. Top 25 and fastest-growing 25 e-retailers based on 2014 YouTube video views. List of the Top 500 Social Media merchants showing which social network sharing features they deploy on their web sites. 2015 Social 500 Available in Two Formats The exclusive data contained in the 2015 Social Media 500 is presented in two formats designed to meet the different information needs and budgets of e-commerce marketers. The first is a $265 subscription to the Social Commerce component of the Top500Guide.com database, which lets subscribers access three years' worth of complete social media data of all 500 web merchants and create their own custom reports comparing selected or comparable groups of e-retailers on any of the 72 social media and commerce metrics contained in the database. The second is a downloadable 62-page PDF version of the 2015 Social Media 500 priced at just $89. It contains a strategic analysis of all social media data in the 2015 Social Media 500 study plus 13 content-rich tables, including all those noted above, which provide the key details on each of the 500 social media leaders. How will this data impact your own company's social media presence and e-commerce sales? That's up to how you choose to use it to adapt your e-commerce marketing to the social media age. There's no question about this: E-Retailers who fall behind the social commerce curve are sabotaging their own online businesses. Equip your company with the competitive intelligence it needs to thrive in the rapidly changing world of digital marketing.

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